Jackknife 20
by Katkid
Summary: A meeting in the wee hours of the morning leaves Yuugi, Jounouchi, Ryou and Kaiba comatose...or does it? The four of them awake into a grim future where Yuugi and Jou are slaves, Ryou's a mariner and Seto's...well, you'll see.... COMPLETE
1. Prologue to Insanity

*PROLOGUE* 

~Jounouchi's POV~

  My car could be on one of those auto-mechanics shows you sometimes see on TV…you know, the programs where they take a dumpy hunk of metal that could barely be considered a car and turn it into a sleek, shiny luxury vehicle.  Yup, my ride would fit in perfectly with one of the "befores" of one of those shows.

   It's so old I'm surprised you don't need a crank to start it, and the motor coughs and wheezes like an asthmatic if the speedometer hits anything above 50.  I think at one point it was green, but the paint job is so old it looks brown.  The brakes squeal like hell every time you want to stop.  Most of my friends are afraid to catch a ride in it, and probably with good reason.  One of these days, it'll probably explode and take me out with it, but in the mean time, at least it's some wheels.

   Well, now that you know all about the hazards of riding in my car, I guess you can see why I was surprised when my best friend asked me to give him a ride.  But if I was surprised when he asked that, I was totally blown out of the water when he told me _when _he wanted it.  2:00 in the morning.

   Don't get me wrong, or anything.  2:00 is a great time to cruise town if you happen to have a night of insomnia, but this was Yuugi Mutou, or as I like to call him "Yug".  Yug's about the most straight-laced kid I know.  He doesn't do drugs, he doesn't drink, he won't smoke and I have yet to hear him cuss.  He lives with his grandfather, who is even more straight-laced than him.  Sneaking out of the house at two in the morning is something I could never see Yug doing.

            "What's goin' on, Yug?" I'd asked.  "Your grandpa'll flip if he catches ya."

            "I know, Jou." He ran a hand through his spiky tri-colored hair and sighed.  "I can't really talk about it now."

            "Why not?  What's wit' all da secrecy?"

            "It's…nothing.  You'll find out later, all right?"

            "Yug—"

            "Mr. Katsuya, the bell has rung," Mr. Taki broke in.  "Take your seat—unless you want detention for the third time this week."

   Sometimes I really hate that bastard.  But I'm getting off track.  I agreed to pick up Yug at two and spent the rest of the school day wondering if it was Yami that had asked, and not Yug at all.  I still have a hard time figuring out when Yami's taken over sometimes.  I ended up getting the detention that Mr. Taki had threatened me with for "daydreaming", but decided that it _had _been Yug after all.

   I served my half hour detention and wasted the rest of the afternoon watching _Comedy Central _and pretending to do my homework as I watched _Premium Blend. _ I must have fallen asleep at some point, because the next thing I remember is waking up slumped over an empty page of history homework with an old _Saturday Night Live _episode blasting away on the TV.

   _Shit, what time is it? _I wondered to myself.  I glanced at the digital clock above the TV and muttered a couple of phrases that probably wouldn't be decent to print.  The glowing green numbers announced that it was 1:45.  _I've gotta pick up Yug in fifteen minutes, _I thought.  _Knowin' my luck, that hunk a' junk car of mine'll stall out._

   The car didn't stall once on the trip to Yug's house.  I swear, the engine purred like a kitten the whole way there.  I ended up rolling to an unusually quiet stop in front of Yug's house a good five minutes earlier than I'd expected to arrive.

   I didn't wait long before the front door opened a crack and Yug slipped out.  Once he was in the car, I blasted him with questions.

            "OK, Yug, what's goin' on?  Where are we goin'?  Why da _hell _are _you _sneaking out of your house?"

            "It's still far too early to tell you that much, Jounouchi," Yug answered.  Or rather, Yami answered.  Somewhere between shutting the car door and fastening the seatbelt, Yami had taken over.

            "Why?  C'mon, you can tell me.  It's not like I'm gonna back out on ya or anything."

            "Just start the car, Jou.  The less you know right now, the better.  There are elements of this that even Yuugi knows nothing about."

            "Oh _hell _no!" I growled.  "Look, I want ta know what's goin' on.  Yug's my friend, remember?  Dis car ain't goin' nowhere 'til I start hearin' some answers."

   Yami sighed and suddenly looked as if he'd aged ten years.  "Please start the car, Jou.  You'll find out everything soon enough."

   I was tempted to make good on my threat, but if there's one thing I've learned about Yami since Yug got ahold of that millennium puzzle, it's that arguing with him is completely pointless.  So with a frustrated growl, I started the car and said: "All right.  Fine.  You win.  But where're we goin'?  I can't drive us there if you don't tell me."

            "Just follow my directions, Jou."

   _Christ, _I thought.  _What da hell _is _dis?_  Still, I followed Yami's directions as best you could expect anyone to at such an ungodly hour.  Three bumped curbs and a couple of missed turns later, we were there.  Wherever "there" was.

   It looked like we were officially in the middle of nowhere.  The only thing around for who knows how far was a very old, very ugly house on a hill.  I kid you not, it looked like something from one of those old horror movies.  I wouldn't have been surprised to see a flock of bats come flying out of the chimney.

            "So…uh…what—what do ya want me to do while you're…doin' whateva' ya' came here to do?" I asked Yami as he started to get out of the car.

            "Come along if you like," he replied.  "Just don't do anything rash."

   He didn't wait for me as I scrambled out of the car; just started on his way up the hill to the house.  I didn't bother to lock to door.  Nobody would be stealing my piece of crap ride, no matter how desperate they happened to be.

   I caught Yami just as he reached the door of the house.  He didn't even spare a glance in my direction to acknowledge my presence.  Nope.  He just stared at the door as he quietly said: "I'm sorry to keep you in the dark about everything that's going on right now, Jou.  If you want to back out of this, here's your last chance.  I wouldn't blame you if you did."

   _Back out of _what? I wondered.  "Naw.  I'm wit' you and Yug on dis," I answered.  _Whatever it is, _I silently added.

   Yami nodded once, then opened the door, determination etched into every feature of his face.  He stepped inside and I followed, squinting to get used to the sudden dark.

            "Ah, pharaoh.  You came," a (regretfully) familiar voice greeted from the shadows.

            "Yes, tomb robber.  I see you've been expecting me."

   I was beginning to regret agreeing to be involved in whatever was going to happen.  I hadn't seen much of Bakura, but what I _had _seen was enough to give me some really nasty nightmares.

   As my eyes got used to the dark room, I was able to vaguely see the psychotic freak seated at the far end of a long table, feet propped up on top of an empty dinner plate.  The table had been set with painstaking care, right down to the black folded napkins in each wine glass.  Platters heaped with some extremely tasty looking food went down the entire length of the table.

   Bakura picked up a half-full glass of wine that looked disturbingly like blood and downed it in one gulp.  "Eat?  Drink?" he queried.  "It's quite good, pharaoh, and quite unpoisoned, I assure you."  Yami didn't offer an answer, and I kept my mouth shut (although my stomach growled noisily when I caught a whiff of the roast).

   I guess Bakura took our silence as a refusal, because he finally said: "No?  That's fine.  I'd prefer to 'cut to the chase' as the foolish mortals like to call it."

            "There has been a severe imbalance between the shadow realm and this realm within the past few days.  If this continues—"

            "I'm not an ignoramus, pharaoh," Bakura hissed.  "I've noticed it as well.  Much as I'm loath to admit it, something must be done.  One cannot conquer a world that doesn't exist."

            "The damage may already be done, tomb robber.  Within the last two hours there have been some dangerous fluctuations.  The imbalance is beginning to correct itself.  Something is going to give, but what I don't know."

   Bakura poured himself a second glass of wine and downed it in one gulp, like the last one.  He set down the glass and chuckled.  It was a gravelly laugh that gave me goosebumps.  Definitely not a nice sound.  "Who would have ever guessed we would be discussing a common goal?" he chortled.

            "The goal may be common, but the motives are not, tomb robber, and that makes all the difference."

   At that point, I started worrying about the "what's" and "why's" of the situation.  _What da hell is all this?  "One cannot conquer a world that doesn't exist"?  What's dat supposed to mean?  What did Yami mean "something has to give"?  What am I gettin' myself into?_

   Bakura got an ugly look on his face and growled something in some language I couldn't understand.  Whatever it was, Yami got a look on his face that clearly showed he was pissed.  I think he was about to say something back, but he never got the chance, because right then the front door swung open, hitting me square in the back of the head.

            "Ow!" I shouted, turning around to see who'd hit me.

            "What is that mutt doing here, Yuugi?" the newcomer demanded.

   _Does life hate me?_ I wondered._  Bakura just wasn't enough, was he?  Oh, no.  Now I get to deal wit' da biggest asshole on da face a' da earth.  WHY ME?_

            "What are _you _doing here, Kaiba?" Yami retorted, at the exact same moment Bakura questioned: "Why have you brought the mortals, pharaoh?"

   Yami ignored Bakura's question and Kaiba replied: "_You're_ the one who invited _me_ out here to duel."

            "I did no such thing, Kaiba."

   Kaiba looked irked and answered: "Don't play dumb with me, Yuugi.  You gave me the address yourself just this afternoon."  He pulled a folded piece of paper out of one of the pockets of his (creepy) trench coat and handed it to Yami.

            "Well, this _is _my handwriting, but I don't remember asking you to come out here," Yug said.  I'm guessing that he made Yami let him take over to keep Yami from killing Kaiba.

            "I thought that you were above pulling childish pranks," Kaiba muttered, opening the door.  "You and that damn mutt."

            "Hey!" I yelled after him.  "I'm not a—"

            "Shit!" Kaiba cut me off.  "Everybody get down!  NOW!"

            "Why?  What's goin'—"

            "Down!" he shouted as he slammed the door and dropped to the floor.

            "Kaiba, what are you—" Yug started to ask.  He never finished his sentence.  Because right then I heard the gunshots.  They seemed so loud I couldn't hear anything else.  Not the scraping of Bakura's chair as he dove under the table.  Not my hands hitting the floor.  Not Yug yelling.  I couldn't hear any of it until the shots ended just as suddenly as they'd begun.

   Everyone shakily got to their feet, darting nervous, paranoid glances around the room.  My ears were ringing and it seemed like everything was muffled; even my voice as a asked: "Is everyone OK?"  There was a whimper from Yug right about then, and I suddenly noticed that he _hadn't _gotten up like the rest of us.  "Yug?"

   And there he was.  My best friend, shaking and hugging a bloody mess where his stomach was supposed to be.  I don't remember how long it took me to pluck up the courage to go to him.  All I remember is whispering: "Come on, Yug.  You're gonna be OK."

   He sobbed and choked on blood.

            "It's not as bad as it looks, buddy," I reassured him.  Or maybe I reassured myself.  "Hey!  Kaiba!  Call an ambulance, goddamn it!"

   _It's not as bad as it looks….  _I kept repeating it to myself as Kaiba made the call, like a mantra.  _It's not as bad as it looks…It's not as bad as it looks…It's not as bad—_

   And that's when the attacker decided to let us know he wasn't finished yet.  There was an explosion, then blinding light and then heat…and then the pain.

   _My ears are bleedin',_ I thought, as I gave in to the darkness that swirled around me.

**Author's Notes: **Hmm…That's a bit…morbid.  Don't panic.  I'm not done with this thing yet!  Anyways, this is my first attempt at a YGO fic, so please don't hate me if I don't have everything 100% right.


	2. Chapter 1: In the Eye of the Gorgon

*CHAPTER 1*

~Yuugi's POV~

   I didn't want to open my eyes.  It wasn't that I was afraid of what I would see when I did…I was just too exhausted to manage even that small effort.  The sun beat down on my face and turned the air hot and heavy.  My throat was painfully dry and parched.  I tried to swallow, only to choke on something rough and grainy.  _Dirt? _I vaguely wondered as I coughed.

            "I think he's waking up, Heath," a girl's voice whispered from somewhere above me.  "Aiden?  Can you hear me?"

   _Heath?  Aiden?  What…?_

            "You're wrong, Catherine," a tinny male voice responded.

   _Catherine…that's not a Japanese name, _I thought.  _Where am I?  America?  England?_

   The cold water hit me like a slap in the face.  I sat up with a yelp, spitting dirt out of my mouth and mopping at my eyes as a pair of thin, strong arms embraced me in a strong hug.

            "I told my father not to send you out in this heat," the girl's voice said.  "Are you all right, Aiden?"

            "Who's—" That's as far as I got before I opened my eyes and saw.  The girl that was holding me had dark brown eyes and deeply tanned skin.  She had a cute button nose and nice, red lips.  She might have been pretty…if not for the hundred or so live snakes that took the place of hair on top of her head.

   I froze.  Stopped thinking, stopped breathing…just…stopped.  I couldn't take my eyes away from that disgusting, writing mass of snakes.  I think I tried to scream, but all that came out was a sick little whimper.

            "I think he's got heatstroke, Heath," the gorgon-girl grimly announced.

            "Better take him to the tent and get back to work," answered the male voice.  I heard footsteps walking away, and wanted to scream: _"Wait!  Don't leave me alone with this monster!"_  All I could get out was another sobbing whimper.

            "You'll be all right, Aiden," the girl whispered, scooping me up and beginning to walk.

   _Coral snake, _I thought, still too horrified to look away from the snakes.  _Cobra.  Sidewinder….  _I was so giddy with fear I started to giggle.

            "Shh….  Just rest, Aiden."

   I finally managed to rip my gaze away from the hideous sight and caught a glance of my surroundings.  There was nothing but freshly plowed field in all directions.  Hundreds of men and women worked in lines of twenty or so sowing seeds.  Most wore hats or cloths over their heads to protect against the baking sun.  A few of the men had their shirts off and their skin was flaked with blistered sunburns.

   A huge yellow tent was the only source of shade, and a few workers were huddled in its shadow, red and sweating.  When they caught sight of the gorgon-girl, they started howling: "Snake-headed freak!" and "Bastard child!"  A couple of the snakes on her head hissed menacingly at the workers, and they relented; though I still wonder if it was because they were actually afraid or if they looked as tired as I felt.

   She carried me inside the tent and hollered: "Gabe!  Are you still here?"  There was no answer, but she apparently found whoever it was she was looking for, because she smiled and said: "Oh, there you are.  You've got company; I've brought Aiden."

            "How many times've I gotta tell you people?  My name's not—oh _Jesus!" _a very familiar Brooklyn-accented voice shouted.

   The gorgon-girl laughed and answered: "Right.  Your name's not Jesus.  Anyways, here's Aiden."  She set me down on the floor and added: "I'd better get back to work."  And then she was gone.

   I almost cried with relief.  I would have if the owner of the accented voice hadn't have chosen that moment to inquire: "Yug?"

            "Jou!" I sobbed.

            "You all right?  That…thing…didn't hurt ya, did it?"

   I shook my head no and shakily sat up.  "Where—" my voice cracked and I cleared my throat before asking: "Where are we, Jou?  How did we get here?"

            "I got no idea.  Last thing I remember is that creepy house and then the explosion."

            "What ex—" I trailed off as memory came back to me full force.  Sneaking out of the house.  Yami and Bakura.  Kaiba.  The gunshot wound.  _Pain.  _Heat.  A huge noise.  Then…nothing.  I pulled up my tee shirt and frantically ran a hand over my stomach, half expecting to feel a gaping, bloody hole.

            "Do ya think…maybe…we died?"

            "What?" I demanded, letting my shirt flop back down.

            "In the explosion.  Do ya think we died?"

   I shivered.  "I…I don't know.  What are we doing here if we did?"

            "Maybe we're in Hell."

   It was believable.  The gorgon-girl certainly could pass as a demon.  But….  "No," I quietly replied.  "Why would they be calling me Aiden and you…what was it?"

            "Gabe," he chuckled.  "Maybe Hell's got its records messed up."

   We laughed nervously at the feeble attempt at a joke.

            "We should ask someone," I wheezed through my laughter.

            "Yeah, I can see it now," Jou replied, choking back a few laughs of his own.  "'Um, excuse me, sir.  Can ya tell me who da hell I am and what da hell I'm doin' here?'"

   We started giggling stupidly.  The people outside the tent probably thought we were completely insane.

            "Hey, did ya try talkin' to Yami? Maybe he knows what's goin' on," Jou suggested, once he was finally able to speak again.

            "No.  Wait a minute," I answered.  I concentrated, trying to tap into our mental link…and didn't find it.  _What? _I thought as I (unsuccessfully) tried again.

            "Shit, Yug!  Your puzzle!" Jou exclaimed, shattering my concentration.

   And that was when I noticed the absence of the familiar weight around my neck.  I brought my hand to my chest, but felt no sign of metal or chain.  My puzzle was gone.

~Anzu's POV~

   I couldn't believe it when I heard the news.  I _wouldn't _believe it.  Not until Honda drove me to the hospital to see for myself.  And even there in the car, I didn't believe.  I didn't believe, even when I saw Shizuka, eyes red and puffy from crying.  I didn't believe; not even when I found Mokuba huddled miserably in a waiting room, staring mindlessly into space I didn't believe.

   We saw Jounouchi first.  IV's.  Heart monitor.  Ventilator.  Burns all over his face and chest.  Coma.  Honda could barely take it.  He gave a kind of choked off yell when he saw him.  I believed.  I believed, but I didn't cry.

   Next, Ryou.  They'd said he'd been thrown out a window by the explosion, and I'd hoped (God how I'd hoped!) he'd been spared.  But no.  Everything above his eyebrows was bandages.  I couldn't see even a hint of that long, silvery hair of his.  Coma.  I didn't cry, not even when Bakura came out of the Ring and chased us out of the room, hissing curses in Egyptian after us.

   Seto.  Honda hadn't wanted to even try and see Seto, but I insisted.  The doctors wouldn't let us in, but informed us that "his condition is stable."  They said he suffered third-degree burns all over his back.  They said he'd saved Yuugi.  That he'd pulled him out of the house; that he'd been going back to get Jounouchi.  Honda wouldn't believe it.  I could hardly believe.  But I did, and still I didn't cry.

   Yuugi.  We couldn't see Yuugi, either.  He was struggling, they told us.  The bullet wound was critical.  But (thank God) no burns.  And still, I didn't cry.

            "Why?" Shizuka had whispered, burying her face in Honda's shoulder.  "Why?"  He'd hugged her, stroked her hair, whispered to her, hid his own tears for her sake.  He'd steered her off toward a waiting room, and I didn't follow.  I went to wait at the car.  And still, even then, I didn't cry.

   I stepped off the elevator on the ground floor and almost ran straight into Mai Kujaku.  She grabbed my arm and yanked me around the corner, into a somewhat deserted hallway.

            "Anzu," she whispered.  "I just read it."

   I looked and saw that clenched in her left hand was a newspaper.  The newspaper with the story about my friends, or "the unfortunates", as they were dubbed.

            "I just _read _it," she repeated.  It was then that I noticed how awful she looked.  She was pale.  Her hair was wild and unkempt.  And she looked absolutely terrified.

            "Oh, God, Anzu.  I was supposed to be there," she croaked.

            "What?  What are you talking about?"

   She pulled a card out of her pocket and pushed it into my hands with a sob.  No, not a card…an invitation.

            "What is this?"

            "Just _read_ it!"

   I opened the invitation.  "Late-night duel for exceptional duelists," the blue and gold writing announced.  "2:00 am, sharp."  And there it was.  The address.  The same address.  The same house.

            _"I was supposed to be there!" _she whispered again.

   I walked out of the hospital in a daze.  And still, I didn't cry.

   I went back to Honda's car.  I leaned on the hood.  Through the windshield, my eyes fell on the open newspaper and the headline: "TRAGEDY AT HILL HOUSE—FOUR COMATOSE".  And then I cried.

**Author's Notes: **Even more morbidity.  It'll get exciting soon, I swear!  Thanks for reading, and thanks to my lone reviewer, BluJay!


	3. Chapter 2: Monsters and Murder Attempts

*CHAPTER 2*

~Seto's POV~

   The first thing I noticed as I began to regain consciousness was the chanting.  A hundred voices, all speaking in unison, completely monophonic.  The language was rough and grinding.  It was the type of sound that fills you with a sense of foreboding and gives you goosebumps, like the growling of the monster under the bed you're so sure you can hear when you're six years old.

   The air was so heavy with smoke I could taste it.  It wasn't the thick, acrid smoke of a fire; this was a sweet, intoxicating odor.  _Incense, _I realized.  _Sandalwood…?_

   I opened my eyes to…nothing.  The voices grated on, and I saw no bodies to attach them to.  The smoke still hung thick in the air, but I was unable to see its source.  I was blindfolded, and my hands were bound tightly behind my back.

   A gong sounded and the chanting abruptly ceased.  An ominous silence settled over the room.  It seemed as if the chanters were holding their breath, waiting for something.  And then an old, reedy voice rasped: "The sacrifice."

   "Sacrifice," echoed the chanters, voices lowered to a reverent whisper.  A bizarre chorus of drums and bells began to play as the chanters whispered: "sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice…."

   A beefy, calloused hand closed around my wrist and I was jerked to my feet.  I swayed, overbalanced by an unfamiliar weight, and very nearly toppled over backwards.  The hand prevented that, however, and ushered me forward.

   Another savage yank on the arm prompted me to stop.  My hands were freed from their binds and the blindfold was whipped away.  My eyes watered as the sickeningly sweet smoke that filled the room assaulted them.  I caught only a glimpse of figures obscured by loose black cloaks before I was shoved forward onto a hard, white marble table.

   That was when I saw the knife.  _Sacrifice…knife…SHIT! _I thought.  I twisted to the left and the knife grazed my shoulder before hitting the marble with an impossibly loud _clank._

   The chanting died away.  The drums and bells came to a painful halt.  The knife skittered across the table and clattered to the ground.  The cloaked figures were completely still.  I cautiously slid off the table and crept toward the back of the room and what I hoped to be an exit.  The cloaked figures did nothing to prevent my escape.  It was as though they had forgotten about me, strange as it seems.  I reached the door and slipped outside completely unhampered.

   Away from the eye-stinging smoke, I was easily able to recognize where I was.  "What the **hell** happened to my house?" I muttered.  Because I had just walked out of my home office and was standing at the top the stairs to find my house completely ruined.

   Window frames were bare.  The carpeting was hidden under a thick layer of leaves, vines, dirt, pinecones and twigs.  The furniture had mysteriously disappeared.  Walls were cracked and stained.  It looked as though nobody had tended to it in decades.

   _What did those lunatics do?  I swear to God I'll put a lawsuit the size of China over their heads for this!  What in the hellwere they thinking?_  And then a thought that froze every drop of blood in my body came to me: _Where is Mokuba?_

   _If they so much as cut his hair, they are going to die a horrible death, _I thought, barely noticing the odd weight on my back as I sprinted down the hall to my brother's room.  Hesitantly, afraid of what I might see, I opened the door and walked inside.

   The room was completely barren, save for a few dehydrated creeper vines scattered across the floor.  Gone were the toys, books and bed.  Gone was the cherished X-box I'd bought him for Christmas.  Every sign of my younger brother's existence was just…gone.  _Bathroom, _I thought.  _Check the bathroom._

   I nudged open the door of my younger brother's bathroom and found it just as deserted as his bedroom.  _Mokuba's a smart kid, _I told myself.  _He wouldn't just sit here and wait for those psychopaths to catch him._  Still, I couldn't bring myself to stop searching the bathroom.  My eyes fell on the stained bathtub.  They roved the empty cupboards.  They rested on the cracked mirror—and then I forgot all about poor Mokuba, because staring back at me from the fragmented glass was a monster.

   The monster had my face…same eyes, same nose, same hair.  It had my tall and somewhat lean form.  A pair of huge, silver-white wings extended from its shoulder blades.  Each of its fingers was tipped with a sharp, six-inch long claw.  It had a long, sinuous tail.  I stood there, completely transfixed for quite some time before I realized that the "monster" was me.  And then I lost it.

            "Aaagh!" I screamed, pounding on the mirror with clawed hands, not wanting to see the freakish reflection anymore.  The already cracked glass quickly shattered and rained to the ground under the blows.  It wasn't until every glittering shard had been ground into powder that I was able to stop screaming.  And then I sat, staring at my mutilated hands, whispering to myself: "This isn't happening…this isn't happening…."

   My voice grew louder and louder, until I was shouting it: "This is NOT happening…this is NOT HAPPENING!"

            "Happening…happening," mocked a hundred voices.  "Happening…happening…." Apparently, the cloaked figures had finally realized that their sacrifice was missing.  They poured into my younger brother's room, an unending sea of black, billowing robes and low-drawn hoods.  And all the while, they chanted: "Happening…happening…happening…" as if to rub it in my face.

            "The sacrifice," said the reedy voice, and still the cloaked figures filed into the room.  "The sacrifice…."

   _No! _ I exploded out of the bathroom and smashed into a willowy figure, knocking it off its feet.  A pair of arms, a confused scrabble and I was out the door and running down the hall with a mass of the specter-like figures in pursuit.

            "Sacrifice!  Sacrifice!" they shouted until the word distorted into a constant bloodlust roar.  I could feel the tips of their fingers brushing my back.  Their footsteps pounded in my ears.  They were so close…no way out…window!  _Lets see if these wings really work, _I thought, making a desperate dive for the exit.

   I was out.  Falling, wind rushing up my nose and into my eyes.  Wings out.  Soaring.  Flying away from my ruined mansion as the cloaked figures screamed "SACRIFICE!  SACRIFICE!" after me.

~Jounouchi's POV~

   I've woken up with no idea where I was or what I was doing there exactly twice in my life.  The first time was about two years ago.  I'd gone to a party at Kitami Nohara's house.  Every school has a Kitami Nohara.  She's the girl that's in all the honors classes, and you wonder how she managed it.  She's the girl that comes to school stoned half the time and throws a party every weekend.  Anyways, I'd gone to the party and ended up so drunk I couldn't tell up from down.  I woke up the next morning in a ditch about five miles away from Domino with a hangover the size of Manhattan and all the money in my wallet missing.  I'll spare you the gruesome details and say that my trip home wasn't much fun.

   This time, I didn't have a hangover—a plus.  This time, I was also seeing snake-haired freaks and everybody was calling me "Gabe"—a very, very big minus._  At least I managed ta find Yug, _I thought, sparing a glance towards my best friend.

   Yug was still sitting on the ground, where the snake-haired girl had left him.  He'd been understandably freaked out when she'd dumped him there.  (I would have pissed my pants if I had been in his place.)  Discovering that his puzzle was missing must have been too much for him to handle at that point, because that was when he just kind of…shut down.

   I'd tried yelling, screaming—everything short of giving him a punch in the face to snap him out of it.  Nothing worked.  He just sat there, staring off into space.  I was starting to get worried.  And very pissed off.

   _What da hell did we do ta deserve dis shit?_ I stewed.  _We're just a couple a' normal kids for Christ's sake.  If I eva' get my hands on da asshole behind dis, I'll kill 'im.  Who would sit down and plan somethin' like dis out?  Kaiba?  He's definitely got enough dough to make dis work….  _I clenched my hand into a fist at the thought.  _But he was in da explosion, too.  Besides, even he's not dat big of an ass.  But den who is it?  And why us?_

   I sat in that tent a long time, trying to figure it all out.  The scorching heat fell to a more tolerable temperature as the sun began to set.  Shadows lengthened and deepened.  In all that time, I saw more sweating, sunburned people come and go than I cared to count.  None of them paid me any mind as they went bustling around the tent for a drink of water or something to eat.  By the time one of them actually acknowledged my existence, I was so frustrated with the situation I was at the end of my fuse.

            "The master'll be giving you a beating if he finds out you stayed in here all day, Gabe" berated a grubby girl that couldn't have been any older than twelve.

            "Goddamn it!  My name's not Gabe!"

   The girl was understandably surprised, but she recovered quickly.  "All right, what would you like your name to be today, sir?" she queried, fixing me with a quizzical stare.  "I can suggest several names that suit you.  How about jackass?  Or maybe half-wit?  Or perhaps—ow, Gabe, you're hurting me!"

   I had grabbed hold of her thin wrist and held it tight enough to feel the bones bend under the pressure.  "I dunno know who you are, but why don't ya tell me what da hell dis is all about?" I growled, giving her arm a hard jerk.

   She stumbled and came to a halt directly in front of me with a yelp.  "Stop it, Gabriel!"

            "His name's not Gabe," Yug quietly stated.  "His name is Jounouchi."

            "Yug!" I exclaimed, letting go of the poor girl's arm in my surprise.  "You're OK!"

            "His name's Aiden," the girl curtly responded, rubbing at her wrist tenderly.

            "No, my name is Yuugi," Yug gently corrected.

   The girl shook her head.  "The heat's made the two of you loony."

   I was about to say something that would have made a sailor blush, but Yug cut me off.  "We really aren't the people you think we are.  It's not the heat, and we're not just making it up; I promise.  We both just woke up here and we're not exactly sure where 'here' is."

   The girl looked from Yug to me warily, searching for any sign of trickery.  "You're on Master Colbert's plantation," she finally sighed.  I was never quite sure if she believed us or if she just decided to play along.

            "Plantation?" Yug repeated.

            "Yes.  You've always belonged to the Master for as long as I can remember."

            "Wait a second," I interrupted.  "Dat sounds like slavery ta me."

   The girl smiled a humorless smile and replied: "You _are _slaves."

            "Oh, no.  Sorry to tell ya dis, kiddo, but slavery went outta style a long time ago," I answered.  _Ha!  Let's see her explain dat one! _I thought.  _Now we'll start gettin' some real answers._

            "Really?  Last I heard, slavery was legal since the year 3020," the girl replied.

            "_3020?"_ I screeched.  "What in da _hell?"_

            "Jou, don't!" Yug shouted.  I struggled to regain my composure as he asked: "What year is it now?"

            "3145."

~Mai's POV~

   I gripped the steering wheel so hard my knuckles turned white.  My eyes tingled with tears, turning the stoplight into an ugly red and black blur.  _Don't lose it, _I told myself.  _Not here._

   I blinked furiously as the light turned green.  By the time the pickup truck ahead of me was moving, the tears were gone.  _Just make it home, _I thought.  Yes, that was right.  Don't go into hysterics in the car, because we wouldn't want you to get hurt now, would we, Mai?  _Would it make any difference? I wondered.  __Somebody wants me dead._

   I'd gone to see them.  I'd gone to see them and I wished I hadn't.  The burns…the scars…the _pain…somebody had meant them for me.  And to think the only reason I'd escaped was because I was so __vain._

   _Two in the morning?  _I'd thought.  _Uh-uh, not happening.  I'm not going around with ugly bags under my eyes just for some silly duel.  I need my beauty sleep._

   My stomach clenched dangerously at the memory and I pulled my Fiat Spider off the road and snapped off the ignition.  I managed to make it out of the car before I started retching.

      _Who could be that sick? I wondered once I'd finished.  __Who would want to do that to them?  To me?  I sat on the hood of the car with my face buried in my shaky, sweating hands and took deep shuddering breaths.  "It's going to be all right," I whispered. "You're fine."  Ten minutes later, the Spider was comfortably parked in my garage and I was home._

   I walked in the door to be greeted by a scornful meowing.  Jinx.  I'd forgotten to feed Jinx.  The tabby was perched on the edge of the couch, gazing at me in such a way as to suggest it was saying: "I know you're upset, but _honestly!  _How could you forget to feed _me?_"

            "I'm sorry, honey," I muttered as I absently opened a can of Cat Chow and poured it into his dish.  I twiddled his velvety ears on my to my room.  Suddenly, all I wanted to do was sleep.

   It seemed to take every last ounce of energy I had left just to make it up the stairs.  I was so drained I didn't even bother to change into a pair of PJ's.  I was asleep the second my head hit the pillow. 

   I was there.  I was at hill house.  I saw Jounouchi, Yuugi, Ryou and Seto.  They were speaking to each other; arguing.  I could see them, but I couldn't hear them.  Their lips moved, but no sound came out.

            "Leave!" I tried to yell.  "Get out now!"  But the words wouldn't come.  All was silent.

   A flash of light…the explosion!  A look of terror on each boy's face as he was flung through the air like a rag doll by the shock wave.

   The heat was unbearable.  The air was hot and heavy; filled with smoke.  I choked and wheezed, trying desperately to take a breath.  I gasped on the sulfurous air and could hear nothing but the roar of the fire.

   My vision blurred and darkened and I was falling.  Falling through darkness with a rushing in my ears as I choked on the scorching fumes of the fire….  And then I woke up….

   I woke up and I couldn't breathe.  I wheezed, panicked and my hands flew to my throat.  But no…they weren't my hands.  A pair of dirty, rough hands was already around my neck, squeezing…choking….

   I flailed and whimpered, trying to get away from my unseen attacker, but to no avail.  He tightened his grip on my neck and whispered: "Die, bitch.  Die."

   My foot connected with something soft and I heard my attacker grunt.  And suddenly the hands were gone!  I rolled off my bed and onto the floor with a plop and half-crawled out of my room.

   I flew down the stairs as the man in my room screamed after me: "Goddamn you, you bitch!  I'll kill you!"  I could hear his heavy footsteps in my room and then the hall.

   Adrenaline fizzed through me.  Where to hide?  Where to hide?  I sprinted into the kitchen and looked frantically for an adequate hiding place.

   The cupboard under the sink?  No, too small.

   The table?  No, too obvious.

   The pantry.  Perfect!

   I made a mad dash for the pantry and dove inside just as the footsteps reached the bottom of the stairs.  By the time my attacker had found the kitchen, I was safely hidden away.

            "Where are you, bitch?  Where are you hiding?"

   I shivered.  His voice was deep and gravelly and awful to listen to.

            "Come out, come out wherever you are," he sang as a troupe of pots and pans clattered to the floor.

   Oh, God!  Oh, God!  He's searching the place! I thought.  I'm going to die!

            "Come on out, bitch!"

   My cell phone, I thought.  I can get it….  I could get it.  You see, I always keep my cell phone in my purse and my purse was hanging on a peg just outside the pantry door.  It was so, so close.  So, so tempting….

            "Get the hell out here!"  More assorted clunks and clanks.  Is he searching the refrigerator?

   Cautiously, my stomach doing somersaults and my hands shaking uncontrollably, I edged open the door of the pantry until I could see the man.  He was tall and muscular. Even through the loose tee-shirt and black sweats, I could tell he was chiseled like Arnold Schwarzenegger.  He definitely didn't look like the type of person you wanted to be cornered by in a dark ally.  He also happened to be turned away from me.

   Slowly, terrified that he would whip around and see me at any second, I felt for the purse.  My fingers brushed the thin leather strap and I clutched at it like a lifeline.  Eyes glued to the man's back, I pulled the purse to me as he tossed my coffeepot over his shoulder.

   Please work, I silently pleaded as I pressed the power button on my cell phone.  I'd been meaning to charge the phone for days.  I almost cried with relief when the familiar green glow lit the pantry.  My fingers were shaking so much I could barely dial 911.

   One ring…two ring…an answer!  "Domino police.  What's your emergency?"  The lady at the other end of that line could have been eighty years old, covered with liver spots and completely bald and I would have been happy to give her a kiss.

            "There is a man in my house," I rasped, casting a nervous glance at the barely open door.  I was horrified to see that the man had discovered the knives and was now stalking around the kitchen, butcher knife in hand like a lion stalking its prey.

            "All right.  Please stay calm.  What's the address?"

            "It's—"

            "Goddamn it, bitch!  Where are you?"

   I whimpered and the woman on the other end of the line inquired: "Is that him?"

   I nodded, then realized that it was very unlikely she could see me and answered: "Y-yes.  It's 4281—"

            "Found you!"  The door was suddenly ripped open and there was the man, standing in the frame.  "Drop the goddamned phone!" he ordered.

   The phone slipped out of my hands and landed on the floor with a clunk.  I stared, too afraid to close my eyes or look away from the man that was going to kill me.  

   You notice the strangest things as you're about to die.  I noticed that the man was wearing a pair of scuffed, blue Nike's.  I noticed that his shirt was a V-neck cut.  I noticed that his sweats were about one inch too short.  I noticed that his knuckles were white as he clenched the knife.  I noticed how the knife reflected an image of my kitchen sink.

   _He doesn't have a face, _I thought.  But that was silly.  Of course he had a face.  It was the shadows; it was my panic…right?  The only evidence I saw to prove me wrong was the single glinting, golden eye.

            "And now, you die, bitch."  He took a step into the pantry…and was attacked by a yowling monster.  No…not a monster.  Jinx.  It was my cat.

   He stumbled back, waving his arms frantically, trying to pry the cat away from his face.  I pushed past him and ran for the front door.  My heart pounded and my hands shook as I pulled on the door—and it refused to budge.

   _The lock!  _I thought, and began to fumble with the chain.  I could hear the man thundering after me, and then a howl from Jinx and a roar of pain from the man.

   I slipped out the door as the man shrieked: "Damn cat!" and ran for downtown Domino as fast as my legs would go.  _They won't stop, _I thought with a sob.  _They won't stop until they've got me!_

**Author's Notes: **Sorry this one took so long.  The Seto POV at the beginning took me forever to write!  Anyways, hopefully, you enjoyed it.  Reviews and constructive criticism are greatly appreciated!  Thanks to Ryan-Ookami, Angel-Belle, BluJay and kimi no vanilla for all your wonderful reviews!****


	4. Chapter 3: Crossing the River Styx

*CHAPTER 3*

~Yuugi's POV~

   I never was a particularly sporty kid growing up.  While all the other kids in the neighborhood joined their Little League teams and their soccer clubs, I was perfectly content to sit on the sidelines and watch.  PE was never my forte.  All the little leaguers and soccer clubbers always thought it was fun to clobber me in dodge ball, or trip me in tennis, or elbow me in basketball.  But my real problem was running.

   You would think I would have become a pretty good runner, bullied as I was through the years.  But sadly, this was not the case.  Maybe it was because my legs were so much shorter than normal, or maybe I was just out of shape from all those years of spectatorship.  Whatever the case, I never cared much for running.

   Of course, running for your life…that's a bit different.  There must be something about mortal fear that really throws a switch in a person's brain.  Suddenly, your screaming lungs and exhausted legs aren't all that important anymore.  You're going as fast as you think you can move, but somehow, some way, you find the strength to pick up the pace still more.  And you can't care less that you could win the Olympic 100-meter dash at that speed; because all you're thinking is _faster, faster, faster!_  That was the situation Jou and I found ourselves in only a few short hours after waking up in the year 3145.

   The hounds were right on our heels.  I could feel their rancid, hot breath on the backs of my legs.  My skin curdled under it.  Jou had me by the arm; pulling me along so fast I was terrified that I would trip.  A pair of slobbering, canine jaws snapped bare millimeters from my foot, and I screamed anyways.  Jou jerked me forward, not even daring to risk a glance behind him to see if I could still walk—and we still had a half-mile to go before we reached safety.

   I suppose I should back up a bit and explain how we managed to get ourselves into such an uncomfortable situation.  It was the slaves on Master Colbert's plantation.  You see, sometime during dinner (which was nothing more than a watery, tasteless soup), Jou let it slip that we were from the year 2003.  Instead of thinking we were crazy, as you might expect, the slaves believed our story and were eager to help us get back to our time.  In fact, they were even able to offer a bit of advice: "Ask Elijah".

   Elijah, it seems, was some kind of hero.  A 30th century Moses/Robin Hood.  Not to mention a celebrity among the slaves.  The mere mention of his name sent a shiver of awed whispers around the table.  When Jou and I asked who Elijah was, it was as though a bomb had gone off in the room.

            "Oh, he's Catherine's half-brother."

            "Don't you dare lump him in with that snake-haired freak!"

            "He knows everything!"  
            "He was the first to make it over the River Styx!"

            "If he can't help you, no one can!"

            "He's soooo handsome…."

            "I wanna be just like him when I grow up!"

            "He's so lucky…."

            "I wish I could be him!"

            "Elijah's—"

            "He's—"

   It was enough to make your head spin.  After everybody had settled down some five minutes later, one of the slaves, a tall, thin man explained: "He was the first slave to escape to freedom.  He's a mariner now—he works on ships and gets to see the world…and he gets _paid_ for it, too.  If he can't help you, he'll definitely know somebody who can."

            "Oh, and how are they going to get to the docks to ask Elijah _anything, _Robert?" inquired a fierce-looking woman.

   The excitement that had sprung up in the room at the mention of Elijah's name almost immediately faded away to a dull silence.  "_That one could make it, I bet," Robert finally said, pointing at Jou.  "But _that _one…" (He pointed at me) "He's too small."_

            "Hey!  No way am I leavin' Yug here!" Jou growled, balling his hands into tight fists and glaring around the room accusingly.

            "Look kid, the fact of the matter is you've gotta get across the River Styx to be out of slave country," Robert replied.  "It's a seven-mile run from here, and you've got maybe an hour at best before you're discovered missing and they send the hounds after you.  You don't wanna get caught by the hounds, kid."

            "They'll rip you up 'till there's nothing left," a little girl solemnly stated.

            "And then they'll eat your bones for dessert!" shouted another young voice from the back of the room.

            "Yeah?  Well, there's no way in _hell I'm gonna leave 'im here!" Jou snarled, eyes flashing, daring anybody to disagree._

            "Um…Jou?" I whispered, tugging at his sleeve.  "Maybe—maybe it would be better if I stayed.  You know I'm not a runner.  I don't think I could—"

"No way, Yug.  I ain't leavin' ya here alone."

   Robert smiled a sad smile and quietly said: "You would do well to listen to your friend, kid.  You wanna know why they call it the River Styx?  Because before you cross the water, you're a dead man.  There's no turning back.  Just like the Greek River Styx, it separates the dead and the living.  You only get one shot, and if you blow it…."  He trailed, leaving the rest to our imaginations.

            "Ya heard what I said.  I won't leave without 'im," Jou firmly replied.

   So the matter was settled.  We had an hour—no, less than that.  Robert had said _at best.  Less than an hour to make the seven miles to the river.  Jou may have thought it sounded doable, but I couldn't think of anything more impossible.  And yet I went with him as the moon began to rise, big and full into the starry night sky._

   I managed to make it through the first mile without stopping, but even then, I was already wheezing and my legs were dead tired.  The thought of another six was torturous.  I begged Jou to let me turn back, but he only pulled me along faster.

   We ran until I began to feel dizzy and sick.  My legs were numb, but my feet were in agony with painful blisters.  My lungs were screaming.  I was close to collapsing when we first heard the hounds.

   It started as a distant roar, like thunder before a storm, growing to a constant din of growls, snarls, barks, howls and snaps.  We could see them for just a brief second; an inky, seething blob on the horizon before the moon passed behind a cloud, throwing everything into eerie, distorted shadows.

   The sounds of the hounds were drawing ever closer, ever more threatening as we finished the sixth mile.  And then, all of a sudden, they were right on top of us.  A hundred…two hundred…a thousand huge, snarling, wild, wolfish dogs, eyes glowing an unearthly yellow in the dim moonlight.  They truly did look like hellhounds.  One glance at those huge jaws and lolling, red tongues was enough to send the both of us into panic mode.

   We ran, the hounds never far enough behind, snapping at our heels whenever we lagged.  The last quarter mile was a blur of desperate effort to reach the glittering band of water that would save us.  All I could think of through my haze of panic and exhaustion was _get to the bridge._

   And then (Hallelujah!) my feet hit wood.  Our footsteps echoed hollowly as we sprinted over the bridge, thundering off the shimmering waters below.  So there it was.  On one side of the water, two completely terrified kids.  On the other, a horde of angry hounds, howling over a lost meal.

   My legs finally gave out and I lay on the ground staring up at the stars and moaning.  I could taste the watered-down soup from dinner in the back of my throat, and it took the last of my strength to keep it down.  I felt as though I was going to die.

            "Man…we did it, Yug!" Jou panted, staggering around in an exhausted celebratory dance.  "Shit…we did it!  Whoo!"  He threw his arms into the air and fell flat on his back muttering: "Jesus Christ…we made it…."

   We laid there a long time, recovering and gazing up at the stars.  At one point, Jou fell asleep, but I was too tired to sleep.  I could only lay there, staring into the sky as the moon crept towards the western horizon.

   It wasn't until the first gray light of dawn was sneaking out that I recovered the energy to whisper: "the docks."

            "Eh?" Jou sleepily mumbled.

            "Robert said Elijah works at the docks.  We've got to go there."

            "Aw, yeah, sure—" he trailed off on a long, deep yawn before getting to his feet and pulling me to mine.

   Slowly, painfully, we made our way downriver; past a quiet, sleeping town; past a deserted outdoors market, until finally, we arrived at the coastline.

   Far out in the water, past the shallows, huge ships were anchored.  Hundreds of men were scurrying along the narrow strip of beach, loading and unloading supplies from several smaller boats.  A few were rowing to and from the ships, tiny boats heaped with various objects.  The waves were crashing and coating everything with salty foam and a few seagulls wheeled around overhead, looking for handouts.

            "I guess dis is it," Jou muttered, and we cautiously picked our way across the sand toward a clump of burly men throwing boxes and crates into one of the rowboats.  They noticed us before we reached them and quickly halted what they were doing, eyeing us warily.

            "You two coming to steal?" one of them growled.

            "N-no," I stuttered, taken aback by the cold tone.  "We're looking for Elijah."

   The man smiled and answered: "Elijah, eh?  Good kid, that one."  He turned and shouted over his shoulder: "Oy!  Elijah!  Ya got visitors!"

   The clump of men shifted out of the way to allow somebody through.  And out of that tangle of big, beefy seamen stepped the last person I was expecting to see.  Long, white hair; brown eyes; thin, fragile form…I was looking at Ryou Bakura.

**Author's Notes: **Yes, it's short.  But don't despair; I've got big plans for the next chapter!  Reviews and constructive criticism are much loved.  Thanks to BluJay, Angel-Belle and KarribuHater59 for reviewing!  You guys keep me going!


	5. Chapter 4: Mokuba, Is That You?

*CHAPTER 4*

~Yami's POV~

   I cast a final concerned gaze at the bed where my charge rested, surrounded by machines that beeped and whirred.  His innocent face was peaceful in sleep, albeit far paler than usual.  That serene expression had not left his face since his arrival at the hospital, and I sorely hated to break my vigil, afraid that in the short time I would be absent he might re-awaken frightened or confused.

            "I will return soon, aibou," I whispered, soundlessly slipping out the door and into the hallway beyond.

   It was late.  The hospital's designated visiting hours had long since passed, and the long, white halls were dim and deserted.  Though I knew it was foolish, I found myself wishing the shadowy corridors were filled with people bustling from room to room, or chattering amongst themselves; for then I would not have been left alone with only my thoughts as company.

   _I have failed Yuugi, _was all I was able to think as I made my way down the quiet hallways.  _Failure!_  _He suffers for my carelessness.  He may die for my stupidity, as may his friends.  Yuugi, Jounouchi, Ryou…even Kaiba does not deserve this!_

   A shrill scream issued from a room at the far end of the hall, shaking me out of my session of self-chastisement.  I hurried toward the direction of the sound and had nearly reached the room when the door flew open and a woman dressed in a starchy white uniform backed out, trembling from head to foot.  Her eyes were glazed in fear, and she failed to notice me as she turned on her heel and tore down the hall, whimpering.

   I watched her whip around the corner and listened as her thudding footsteps receded into nothing.  It was then that I heard a second sound from within the room: the sound of somebody cackling with delight.  The laughter was very distinctive, and its owner happened to be the soul I had come to speak with.  Warily, I edged open the door and stepped inside.

            "So we meet again, pharaoh," gasped the tomb robber, tears of mirth falling from his usually cold, evil eyes.  "These humans are true knaves.  So easy to spook."

   I glanced from his partially transparent form to that of the boy who so closely resembled him lying dead still in the bed behind him and felt a pang of sympathy for the poor woman.  _Sometimes, it is difficult for one to believe the tomb robber to be several millennia old, _I thought.  _Such a childish prank, passing himself off as a ghost._  However badly I wished to say it, I refrained from voicing my opinion aloud.  Instead, I stated: "The imbalance between the shadow realm and this realm has grown more severe."

            "Of course it has," replied the tomb robber, finally regaining his composure.  "I don't know where you got all that nonsense about it 'correcting itself' as you said last night.  It _can't _correct itself.  I believed even you would know that much.  How foolish of me."

   I stiffened at the insult, but kept my face a mask of nonchalance and confidence.  "If you are so knowledgeable about such matters, tomb robber, I'm sure that you are aware that the source of the imbalance is located somewhere within Domino City."

            "Of course I did, _pharaoh," _he snorted.  "As I told you before, I am not an idiot."

            "We must find the source of the imbalance and correct it, and we must do so quickly.  I fear that if we wait too long, this world will be destroyed."

            "Finding the source should be simple with the powers of the Ring," the tomb robber smirked.

            "We cannot use the powers of the Millennium Items," I answered.

   The smirk immediately disappeared from his face.  "What?" he hissed, eyes flashing.

            "The powers of the Puzzle have been sealed away," I explained.  "Nor can I contact Yuugi through our link.  It stands to reason that the same has happened to you."

   He narrowed his eyes.  "You lie," he hissed.  I was about to assure him that I was indeed telling the truth, but his expression went blank, as though he was focusing on a point far away.  A moment passed as he attempted to tap into the link that he and Ryou shared and then his expression became alert and cold once again.

            "Tell me, do I lie?" I inquired.

   He glared at the floor before my feet and mumbled: "What you say is true.  Damn it all…I can't even find my soul room."

            "We must work together to find the source and correct it.  You cannot do it alone, tomb robber, and nor can I."

   He bared his teeth in a feral snarl and clenched his fists into tight balls in response.  For one brief instant, it seemed as though he would attack me, but then he sighed and nodded in silent agreement.

            "I'm glad to see we are agreed on this," I said as he continued to glare at the floor.  "I will take my leave now.  I must get back to Yuugi."

~Ryou's POV~

   I had just woken up surrounded by five of the biggest, roughest-looking men I had ever seen with absolutely no idea how I had come to be in such a position.  For a moment, I had thought that my Yami had managed to get me into this predicament, and I'd closed my eyes, expecting them to beat the snot out of me and steal anything of worth I had.  But those huge, burly men weren't going to beat me up.  Quite the opposite in fact.

            "Are you all right, Elijah?" one of them had anxiously asked me.  "You took a pretty nasty knock on the head there."

            "I—who is Elijah?" I questioned.

   They looked at each other, exchanging worried expressions.  "You are," another finally informed me.  "You haven't got amnesia, have you?"

            "I'm sorry, you must be mistaken.  My name is Ryou."

   This response only seemed to worry them even farther.  "No; your name is Elijah.  Maybe you should lay down."

   I sighed, and answered: "Fine.  My name is Elijah.  Could you please tell me what's going on?"

            "We were unloading the cargo and a box hit you and knocked you out," explained the first man.

            "Cargo?  What—" I never got to finish my question because that was when a man nearby yelled: "Oy!  Elijah!  Ya got visitors!"

   _What in heavens is going on? _I wondered as I picked my way through a group of beefy, mean-looking men in the direction of the voice.  _How in the world did I get to the beach?  And who is this "Elijah" that I'm supposed to be?_  I emerged from the tangle of men to come face to face with Yuugi Mutou and Katsuya Jounouchi.

            "R-Ryou?" Yuugi stammered, sounding every bit as surprised as I was.

            "Yuugi!  Jounouchi!" I cried.  I had never been more relieved to see a familiar face in my life.

            "What da…?" Jounouchi trailed.  "What're ya doin' here, Ryou?"

"I haven't got the foggiest idea.  I just woke up here.  My Yami didn't do anything, did he?"

   Yuugi shook his head and answered: "Jou and I don't know much about what's going on, but we'll tell you what we _do _know.  First off—"

            "Hey!  Look over there!" Jounouchi interrupted, pointing wildly at the point where beach became dirt path.

   Yuugi and I both looked in the direction that Jounouchi was pointing and Yuugi gasped in surprise.  Walking along the path at a leisurely pace was a very tall boy with dark brown hair styled into an odd sort of Mohawk.  "Is that—"

            "Honda!" Jounouchi shouted, cutting Yuugi off.  "Ya wanna explain everything ta Ryou while I get Honda, Yug?"  Jounouchi tore off across the beach, throwing gritty sprays of sand in his wake, not waiting for an answer.

   Yuugi gave me a brief account of all that had happened to him as Jounouchi ran off, from waking up at Master Colbert's plantation to discovering the absence of his Puzzle to his nerve-wracking run for escape.  "So that's pretty much all that's happened so far," he finished.  "We haven't figured out why or how we got here and the slaves at the plantation said that Elijah could help us…but that isn't going to work, since you're obviously not him.  I guess we're kind of in the dark again for now."

   I sighed.  "I'd be willing to wager my Yami is responsible for this somehow.  I should probably ask him to undo whatever he did so we can get back."

   Yuugi's eyes widened.  "You've still got your Ring?"

            "Of course I—no…it—it's gone!" I cried, feeling at my chest for the familiar metal.  I didn't know whether to rejoice or cry.  After all, what I'd wanted more than anything in the world was to be free of my Yami and his abusive control, and here it was, my dream come true.  And yet…it felt as though a part of _me_ had gone with him.  A vital, irreplaceable part of me was missing.  I didn't have long to reflect on it because Jounouchi soon returned, with Honda in tow.

            "Honda!  Whatever da hell kinda joke you're tryin' to pull, knock it off right now!" Jounouchi growled as they came within comfortable hearing range.  "It's really startin' to piss me off!"

            "What's going on, Jou?" Yuugi inquired, turning his attention to the approaching blond.

   Jounouchi gritted his teeth, and the expression of annoyance already etched on his face deepened even further.  "He keeps tryin' to tell me his name's 'Joel'."

            "Only because it is," replied Honda.  "My Master warned me that you would mistake me for this 'Honda' person.  He told me I was to come down to the beach to collect the three of you and bring you back to his workshop."  
            "What are you talking about, Honda?" Yuugi queried, giving him a bewildered look.

            "He's been tryin' to pull dis shit with me da whole time," Jounouchi broke in.

   Honda sighed.  "I'm sorry, but my name is Joel.  I don't know who this 'Honda' is, but I'm not him; I swear it.  My Master sent me to bring you three to him.  He said he knows your plight and he knows how to help you.  If you would just come with me, he can explain everything to you."

            "Honda…." Jounouchi warned, glaring.

            "Wait, Jounouchi," I said, finally recovering enough from my shock to speak.  "If I'm supposed to be Elijah, and you're supposed to be Gabe, and Yuugi is supposed to be Aiden…maybe _he_ really _isn't _Honda.  Maybe whatever happened only happened to us."

   Jounouchi paused, processing everything I had said before his glare lost its ferocity and he stated: "All righty, _Joel,_ if your master's so damn smart, let's see what he's gonna do to help us with our 'plight'."

   Honda/Joel smiled and answered: "Follow me, please."  

   As he led us off across the sand in the direction of the dirt path, one of the burly men who had been busy at work on one of the boats shouted after us: "Oy!  What the hell d'you think you're doing?  You can't just steal our best mariner fer cryin' out loud!"

            "Sorcerer's business!" Honda/Joel hollered back.

            "Oh, I'm sorry, sir!  I didn't know you was the Sorcerer's apprentice," the man hastily apologized.  "Please don't turn me into a jellyfish!"  Honda/Joel just laughed and led us away from the beach and off down the path.

   As we walked, the dirt under our feet was replaced with gravel before eventually widening out into a large, cobbled road.  Booths with signs that announced "Annie's Great Pies" or "Fine Woven Rugs" or whatever else the station had to offer lined either side of the street.  All of the booths were locked down, as it appeared to be early morning, and the streets were void of any shoppers.  Honda/Joel silently lead us on through the deserted market without a backward glance to be sure if we were still behind him.

   Jounouchi and Yuugi were whispering to each other, but I wasn't paying them much attention.  My thoughts were on the Ring.  _Where could it have gone? _I wondered.  _I was never able to get rid of it before—why is that any different now?  What if one of those men back at the beach took it?  They'll certainly have a nasty surprise when they meet Bakura._  I shuddered at the thought.  An army of _what if's _and _maybe's _marched through my mind, each more unsettling than the last.  By the time Honda/Joel stopped us in front of a shabby-looking stone building, I was a wreck.

            "Here we are; Master Sorcerer Dante's humble abode," announced Honda/Joel.  "I would sincerely advise you to refrain from offending the Master."  He pushed open a set of heavy-looking double doors made of some type of wood so dark it looked black.  A haze of sweet, green smoke filtered out of the open door.  I caught a whiff of it full in the face and gagged as my nose burned and my eyes watered.  Honda/Joel hurried through the door and disappeared in the smokescreen beyond, announcing: "Master Dante, I've brought them."

            "Thank you, Joel," a very young voice replied.  "You may go about your usual studies."  A tall shadow that must have been Honda/Joel bowed and silently retreated deeper into the curtain of smoke in response.  "You three!" barked the voice.  "Don't just stand out there; come inside so I can get a proper look at you!"

   The three of us exchanged doubtful glances before stepping through the door and into the smoke-filled room.  I coughed and choked on the thick smoke and beside me I could hear Yuugi and Jounouchi doing the same.  Gradually, my coughing subsided and my eyes stopped watering enough for me to take a look around the room.

   Everything was cluttered.  Every available surface was crowded full of almost every type of substance imaginable.  The mantel above the fireplace was crammed full of vials of powders in every color of the rainbow.  On a table were piles and piles of various types of roots and grasses.  Big, blockish candles were stacked high on a chair.  Bones and skulls occupied a shelf in the corner of the room.  A large desk, piled high with bottles and several items from around the room, took the majority of the space in the room.  But the most remarkable feature of the room was the person seated behind the desk.  He wore long, black robes to match his glossy, black hair.  He surveyed all three of us with cool, confident blue-gray eyes and nodded ever so slightly.

            "Holy shit, holy shit," mumbled Jounouchi.  "It's Mokuba.  Oh holy shit, shit, shit, _shit…"_

"Mokuba?  What...?" I wondered.

            "I suppose I should have expected this," "Mokuba" sighed.  "I _do _resemble your friend 'Mokuba' from the past.  No, my name is Dante, and I know of a way to return you to your time."

   Yuugi brightened considerably at the statement.  "Really?  Can we go back now?"

   Dante lowered his gaze to a clump of thick, tangled weeds at the edge of his desk before replying: "I am sorry, but the answer is no.  The path home will be difficult and perilous."

            "Heh.  We can handle a little danger," answered Jounouchi.

            "Can you?"  Dante turned to look Jounouchi in the eye.  "Can you stand against two centuries of lies and corruption and deceit?  Two centuries of greed and jealousy?  Two centuries of hate?  Can you?"

   Jounouchi opened his mouth as though to reply but said nothing, for once at a total loss for words.  Dante allowed the silence to last just long enough to become uncomfortable before quietly saying: "Two hundred years ago, the world was finally in perfect peace.  Mankind had reached new heights in culture, economy and most of all, technology.  Do you know, at that time, robots were so well made; so lifelike people thought they were human.  Anything could be done just by the push of a button, or the flip of a switch.  Like magic."  Dante smiled at the thought.

            "The world, the whole world, was united under one, single ruler.  The seven Millennium Items were finally locked away, guarded by the ruler, their powers never again to be used or abused.  There was no hate; everybody was happy.  It really was a magical time."

   Dante fell silent, staring off into space as though reminiscing of a time two centuries past until Yuugi quietly prompted: "What happened?  Something happened, didn't it, Mo—Dante?"

   Dante sighed, as though reluctant to return to the present.  His clear, gray-blue eyes clouded with sorrow.  "Yes.  It happened almost overnight.  First came the discovery.  It seems that a certain scientist, obsessed with the ancient game of Duel Monsters had discovered or created DNA of nearly every Duel Monster in existence.  At the time, science had abandoned the prospect of cloning in favor of a new type of DNA experimentation: merging.  This new method of experimentation, coupled with the newly discovered Duel Monster DNA was disastrous.  Absolutely horrifying half-human, half-monster mutants were created.

            "I suppose Murphy's Law decided to go into effect after that, because mere days after the discovery of the mutants, the one ruler and guardian of the Millennium Items was murdered by his own brother.  The world plunged from heaven to hell overnight.  Riots broke out; villages burned to ashes…people became desperate.  In all the confusion, it was easy for the ruler's murderer to assume power.  And so began a worldwide Dark Ages.

            "Fanatics formed into cults, worshipping what they believed to be Duel Monster spirits and sacrificing the mutants to the beliefs.  Four of the Millennium Items were stolen before the murderer was able to restore any kind of order.  Rod was quickly recovered and one of the murderer's descendants recently laid hold of Tauk.  Puzzle and Ring remain lost.

            "Once order was restored, the murderer built an incredible fortress and protected it with the most technologically advanced security system the world has yet seen.  There he lived the remainder of his life, paranoid, terrified of meeting the same fate as his brother.  Upon his death, his son worked to fill his father's shoes.

"His son ordered all electrical appliances owned by the common people destroyed, to prevent a breach in the near-impenetrable defenses his father had placed on the fortress.  The elimination of electricity for the commoners became an obsession with the new ruler.  All found harboring so much as a light bulb were rounded up and publicly executed.  In his reign of terror, all technology was effectively destroyed.  With all possibility of revolt doomed, the new ruler lived the rest of his life comfortably within the walls of the fortress, as have all his descendants since then."  

   Dante trailed again, face sorrowful.  "So…uh…with all due respect and everything…what does all dis have ta do with us?" Jounouchi queried.

            "The newest ruler has put heavy restrictions on magic use.  My magic has been so sapped by these new restrictions I am unable to perform even the simplest spells, let alone anything that involves the manipulation of time.  The ruler must be dethroned before I am able to perform the magic," answered Dante.

            "How can we do that?" I demanded.  "How is it possible?"

   A dark look flitted across Dante's eyes.  "You must kill him."

~Anzu's POV~

**Hill House: Attempted Murder?**

Local police suspect foul play at Hill House 

            DOMINO: After scrupulous investigation, local police have found reason to believe that the explosion that occurred at Hill House two nights ago was a planned murder attempt.  It appears a homemade explosive device, found at the site, triggered the blast, which occurred some time between 2:00 and 3:00 am.  Also found on the site was the handgun believed to have been used in the shooting of Duelist Kingdom champion Yuugi Mutou.  Spare ammunition for the handgun was discovered in the glove department of a car belonging to Katsuya Jounouchi, friend of Mutou and also injured in the blast.

            "We have solid evidence to lead us to believe that there has been foul play at work here," states Officer Ryuji Arai, of the Domino city police force.  "Further investigative steps will be taken immediately to unravel this tragic mystery."

            In tandem with this investigation, police have taken Mai Kujaku, Domino city resident into protective custody in response to reports of a violent break-in at her house early last evening.  Kujaku claims to have received an invitation to Hill House, which invited her to a city-sanctioned dueling tournament at the time of the explosion.  Police are as yet unsure whether the break-in and the invitation are connected….

   I slammed the newspaper onto the table, too shocked to read any further.  _What in the world is going on here?_ I wondered to myself as I speed-dialed Honda's phone number.  _Who would want to kill Yuugi?  Or Jounouchi?  Or Mai or Ryou or Seto?_

   One ring…two rings….  _Come on, pick up, _I silently willed.  Three rings…_Argh!  I've got to talk to somebody about this! _I thought.  Four rings…five….  _Maybe he went to be with Shizuka again…._

   I was just about to hang up when a tired voice on the other line yawned: "Hello?"

            "Honda?"  
            "Yeah.  Anzu?"

            "Yes, it's me."

            "Why are you calling me at…" (There was a pause and I assumed he was checking his alarm clock.) "6:00 in the morning?"

            "I guess you haven't seen the news yet, have you?"

   Another yawn from Honda, then: "No.  Why?  What's up?"

            "Honda, they think somebody tried to kill Yuugi and Jounouchi and Ryou and Seto.  They think—"

            "Well everyone knew that."  He yawned again.  "Did they catch the bastard?"

            "Somebody's after Mai, too.  The police just took her into protective custody."

            "What?"

            "I didn't tell you about this yesterday, but I saw Mai at the hospital.  She said somebody had tried to get her to go out to Hill House when it would have exploded."

   There was a pause on Honda's end of the line before he replied: "Really?"

            "Yes.  I—"  There was a beeping noise and I groaned, annoyed.  "Can you hold on for a second, Honda?  There's someone on the other line."

            "Yeah, sure."

   I switched lines, thinking: _That's strange.  Who would be trying to call me now?  _"Hello?"

   A deep, rough voice snarled back: "If you value your goddamn worthless life, you'd better stay the hell away from Mai Kujaku, you dumb bitch!"

            "Huh?  Who is this?  Hello?"

            "Stay away from Mai Kujaku!" _Click._

            "Hello?  Hello?  Hey!  Who is this?"

   The only answer I received was the cold buzzing of a dial tone.

**Author's Notes: **There you go!  An extra-long chapter for your reading pleasure!  Reviews and constructive criticism are greatly appreciated.  Thanks to KarribuHater59 and Trupana for reviewing!__


	6. Chapter 5: I'm a WHAT?

*CHAPTER 5*

~Jounouchi's POV~

   Sometimes life sucks.  For example, life sucks when you trip in the cafeteria and spill a lunch tray full of food all over the hottest girl in school.  Life sucks when you completely blank on a math final then remember everything right after the test is passed back in.  Life sucks when you get rear-ended by some drunk asshole at a stoplight.  Yup, sometimes life really sucks.  But all the suckiest moments of my life could barely hold a candle to the situation Yug, Ryou and I were in now.

   Spilling chocolate milk and pizza on a hot girl sucks.  Being expected to kill the king of the world by a sorcerer who could be Mokuba Kaiba's twin is the ultimate degree of suckery.  Though I've really got to give the kid some credit.  He knew what he wanted and he knew exactly how he wanted it done.

   Dante wanted us to go see some duke named Casper and get a laptop from him.  Then he wanted us to hack into the ruler's fancy pants defense system and crash it.  But before all that, he wanted us to go to a bar called _The Spyglass _and hire an assassin named Jezebel to help us.  It all sounded so black and white when he'd explained it to us back in his little shack.  Now, a couple hours later, it seemed like a huge mess.

   _First off, we don't even know what dis 'Jezebel' character looks like, _I silently stewed as the three of us made our way through the now crowded outdoor market in search of _The Spyglass.  Second, how in da hell would Casper have a laptop?  I thought Dante said all da technology was gone.  And what are we supposed ta do if he _does _have da damn thing?  I'm no computer genius and Yug and Ryou aren't much better n' me.  How are we supposed ta hack into da best system da world's eva' seen?_

I kicked at a stray bit of gravel on the road and it bounced away, soon lost in the mass of people crowding the street.  _I guess it could be worse, _I told myself.  _At least he didn't send us on our merry little way totally unprepared.  He did give us somethin' to pay Jezebel with…what a surprise.  _I eyed a bulge in Yug's pocket, suddenly curious.  _What _did _he give us, anyway?  Money?  Or somethin' else?_  I went on puzzling over the matter and was about to just ask Yug to take whatever-it-was out of his pocket so I could see it for myself when we hit a pack of people clustered so tightly together it was almost impossible to squeeze through.

   _Christ, what's all dis? _I wondered as somebody elbowed me smack in the stomach.  _What's da big attraction?_  Over a sea of bobbing heads, I strained to see what had so many people interested and ended up plowing into a lady with an armful of pies.  I saw the load splatter and heard an angry screech before the crowd shifted and the lady disappeared behind a mass of bodies.

   We were almost past the worst of the crowd when I heard Yug go down with a shout.  I turned to see him sprawled on his back with a tall, gawky-looking guy standing over him, wringing his hands and apologizing over and over.  "I am so very sorry, sir," the guy was saying as he pulled Yug to his feet and dusted dirt out of his hair.  "I honestly didn't see you there.  Are you all right?"

   Yug smiled and was probably ready to accept the apology and forget about it, but I snapped: "Yeah?  Well, why doncha try watchin' where you're goin' next time?"

   Now, normally, I'm not such an ass about something so stupid.  Usually, I'd laugh it off and let it go.  But the situation we were in had me in a less-than-pleasant mood, to say it nicely, and I was ready to _do _something about it, even if it was something as dumb as picking a fight over nothing.

   The guy held out his hands as if to say _"It was just an accident; chill, OK?" _before slowly backing away and melting into the crowd.  I wanted to follow him.  I was in the mood for a fight and I didn't want to let my opportunity walk away.  I made a move to follow the guy, but Yug and Ryou pulled me back and I was forced to content myself with growling curses under my breath as they led me on through the crowd.

   When I finally calmed down enough to think straight, I went back to wondering about what we were going to be paying Jezebel with.  _It's gotta be coins, _I decided as I studied Yug's pocket again.  _What else could fit…in….  _"Aw _shit!" _ I yelled.

   Yug and Ryou both whipped around to look at me.  "What?  What is it, Jou?" Yug asked, expression a weird mix between being concerned and being annoyed.

            "Check your pocket, Yug," I replied.  "Right now."

   Yug raised his eyebrows, but dug his hands into his pockets.  I already knew what he would (or to put it more accurately, _wouldn't) _find.  The bulge had disappeared.  Whatever it was that we were supposed to be paying Jezebel with was gone.

            "They're empty," whispered Yug.

            "Someone must have picked your pocket," said Ryou.

   I'd known it before Ryou said it.  We all knew it before he said a word.  But for some reason, I didn't lose it until I heard.  I could hear a pounding noise in my ears.  My whole body felt hot and weak, as if I had a fever.  It seemed as if I was floating above myself, watching, with no control over my actions.  I heard myself say: "I know who it was."  I saw myself turn and charge back the way we'd come, Yug and Ryou chasing after as fast as they could go.  But I swear, I don't remember actually _doing _any of it.

   To say I was pissed off would merit the understatement of the year award.  I'd left being pissed behind miles ago.  I was running through tight packs of people without seeing them.  There were yells from the crowd, but I didn't hear them.  The only thing that kept me from going completely over the edge was this tiny little voice of reason in the back of my mind that kept whispering: _you're being stupid.  You're making an asshole of yourself._  By the time I found the gawky guy, I was calm enough to be content with pounding his face to mush rather than force-feeding him his own eyes.

   He tried to make a break for it, but he'd spotted me a split second too late.  I grabbed him by the back of the shirt and yanked him back hard enough to make him stumble.  "Give it back right now, ya bastard!" I growled.

            "G-give what back, s-s-sir?" the guy stuttered.  "I d-don't know what you're talking about!  Haven't the faintest idea!"  He pulled his face into a smile that looked more like a grimace and let out a laugh that sounded like a terrified whinny.

            "You know, all right.  Now give it back!"  I balled my hand into a tight fist and was about to take a swing at his crooked nose, but he was a nimble little sucker.  He did a quick maneuver before I could let my punch fly and the next thing I knew I was holding an empty shirt as he tore off down the street.  "Damn!" I swore, throwing the shirt on the cobblestones and following as fast as I could go.

   From somewhere behind, I heard Ryou shout: "Jounouchi, stop!" but all I cared about was getting my hands on that ugly, sticky-fingered bastard.  He darted down a maze of roads, but there was no way I was going to let him shake me.  I turned a corner into a dark alleyway just in time to see him duck into a drab-looking bar.  I was surprised to see that it was _The Spyglass, _but I didn't let my surprise slow me down and dashed into the bar right behind him.

   A wave of raucous laughter and cheers bubbled around me as I stepped inside.  My nose burned under a heavy cloud of cigarette smoke, and I rubbed my eyes, willing them to grow used to the dim light.  I was in for a real shock when they finished adjusting.

   The first thing I saw was a huge stage, lit with hundreds of gas-lamps.  A live band about fifty people strong was blaring out old-time jazz.  Up on the stage were about ten girls, all sequined and feathered like a bunch of Los Vegas showgirls, dancing wildly.  The audience was on its feet, crowding around more of the dancers that were weaving their way around the floor.  I saw a bottle half-full of a bright green drink (which I later found out was absinthe) go whizzing through the air and hit the wall with a crash.  And in the middle of all that chaos, I spotted who I was looking for.

   I dove into the audience and elbowed my way through, trying to keep my eye on the pickpocket.  He saw me and tried to hide in the crowd before I got to him, but this time I had him.

            "Give it to me!" I shouted over the blare of the band.  The pickpocket twisted, but I didn't let him go.  "I ain't in da mood for any more o' dis hide n' seek shit, so hand it over!"

   His shoulders slumped and he reluctantly reached into his pocket and pulled out a small leather pouch.  "Take it, asshole," he muttered, throwing it in my face.

   I scrambled to catch it and he ran away, back into the safety of the audience.  Before I could make a move to follow him, Yug and Ryou were beside me.

            "Jou!" yelled Yug.  "Ryou and I found out where we can find Jezebel.  She works here.  We've got to go backstage."  He paused and his eyes fell on the leather bag in my hand.  "Oh, you got it back!" he exclaimed.  "How did you do it?"

   I sighed.  All the fire that had been running through me less than a minute before was gone, and I was tired.  "Later, all right, Yug?" I answered, holding the bag out for him to take.

   He nodded and the three of us began to make our way towards the stage.  _I wonder…if Jezebel works here…heh, I bet she's a showgirl.  I wonder if Yug and Ryou know we're hirin' a showgirl?  _I chuckled a little at the thought.  _A showgirl assassin.  Now dat's somethin' ya don't see every day…._

   We reached a door just to the left of the stage that we assumed led backstage as the band struck a long, loud chord that effectively scared the crap out of the three of us.  The showgirl dancers onstage took a bow to a din of cheers and we hustled through the door to be met with a hall full of more glittery, scantly clad girls.

   The two in the front squealed and attached themselves to Ryou, who looked as though he had no idea what to do with them.  I swear, the kid completely froze as they ran their fingers through his hair and told him how adorable they thought he was.  It was just about the funniest thing I'd ever seen.

            "Um…excuse me," Yug quietly said.

   One of the girls that had a death grip on Ryou's arm turned and shrieked: "Omigod!  Sandra, look at that one!" and before Yug knew what hit him, he was surrounded by more of the girls that had crowded their way to the front of the line.

            "Hey!" I yelled.

            "Oh, I'm sorry, can I be of service to you?" one of the girls queried, sidling up beside me.

            "We're lookin' for Jezebel.  Any of you know 'er?"

   The squeals and giggling stopped almost immediately.  The girl beside me backed away and looked at me as if I had lobsters crawling out of my ears.  Ryou was unceremoniously dumped on the floor and Yug was pushed back beside me.  "What do you want with _her?"_ demanded one of the girls.

            "Do we really want to know, Colleen?" a voice from the back of the line queried.

            "_Her_ dressing room is the third door on the left," another voice stated.

            "Thanks a bunch," I said, and the three of us began to edge past the line of girls.  They certainly didn't make it a very difficult task.  They were avoiding us as if we'd suddenly turned into poisonous spiders.

            "I hope Jezebel isn't like _them," _Ryou whispered once we were out of comfortable hearing range.

            "What?  You don't like bein' called snoogy bear?" I questioned.  I couldn't resist; he'd left himself wide open for that one.

   Ryou went red and muttered: "They never called me _that!"_

            "Here we are; third door on the left," Yug announced.  He knocked and there was a flurry of footsteps before the door opened a crack and a familiar face poked out.  "A-Anzu?" stammered Yug.

   _No way!  _I thought.  _No frickin' way!  Not Anzu, too.  What da hell is dis?  Da frickin' _Wizard of Oz?

            "Sorry, my name is Anita," replied "Anzu".  "If you're here for the after show 'entertainment', you're a little early.  Come back in an hour."

   Anita started to close the door, but Yug cried: "Wait!  We need to talk to Jezebel!  We're supposed to hire her for an assassin job!"

   The door suddenly flew open and Anita yanked the three of us in the room.  "Don't be screaming it out for the whole world to hear!" she yelled as she slammed the door behind us.  "Dante told me you would be coming soon, but I didn't think it would be tonight.  I suppose you'll be wanting to talk to Jezebel now.  Good luck."  She darted across a room and through a beaded curtain.  From behind the curtain, we heard her announce in a sing-songy voice: "Oh, Jezebel!  You have customers!"

   There was a shadow of movement from behind the swaying curtain and the sound of somebody grumbling to herself before Jezebel finally emerged.

    My first thought when I saw our assassin was: _Oh my God; it's Mai.  _My second thought was: _Oh my God; Mai looks hot in feathers._  But it wasn't Mai.  Sure, she could easily pass as Mai's identical twin if she wanted to—but there were some major differences.  First off, the Mai I know definitely does not have a tail.  I'm also pretty sure that the Mai I know doesn't have two huge cat-like ears sticking out the top of her head.  _She's one a' da mutants, _I thought.  _We're not just hirin' a showgirl assassin named Jezebel.  We're hirin' a Mai look-alike _mutant _showgirl assassin named Jezebel.  Can this get any weirder?_

   Jezebel took one look at the three of us and laughed.  "Sorry," she gasped through the laughter.  "I thought Anita said you were _customers!_  Ohoho!"

            "We are," Ryou insisted.

   Jezebel suddenly stopped laughing.  Her face went hard and cold.  "I'm sorry," she icily stated.  "I don't work for humans."  She paused and looked thoughtful for a moment before adding: "Oh, excuse me.  Make that two escaped slaves and a _robot."_

            "Huh?  Robot?  What're ya talkin' about?" I asked.  _Don't tell me she's a nutcase ta boot.  That would just figure…._

   She marched across the room and glared at me with the creepiest expression on her face.  "You don't have to pretend around me," she said.  "There's no way to hide it.  Your kind all smell the same."  She sniffed loudly and added: "Yes.  Burning rubber and metal.  A very distinctive stench."

            "Hey, hold on a second!" I hollered.  "I ain't a robot!  Jesus Christ, what're you on?"

            "No?"  She raised her eyebrows.  "Let's see about that, shall we?"  Before I could blink, she'd extended three-inch claws from her hands, slashed at my arm and retracted the claws.

            "Argh!  What da hell was dat for?" I demanded.  "God _damn!_  That hurt!"

   She smirked.  "Where's the blood, little robot boy?"

   Yug and Ryou were looking at me with matched expressions of shock on their faces.  It was the kind of look that told you something was very, very wrong.  Slowly, I turned to look at the place I'd been slashed at.  My skin was shallowly ripped open, as it should have been—but there was not a trace of blood.  Not even a single drop.

   Jezebel sauntered across the room, towards the curtain and flippantly advised: "You should talk to Anita about doing your dirty work.  You're just her style."

   She was about to disappear behind the hanging beads when Yug shouted: "Wait!  Please!"  She looked back over her shoulder and Yug pulled the leather pouch out of his pocket and opened it.  Several glimmering diamonds spilled into his hand.  _So _dat's _what Dante gave us! _I thought.

   Jezebel slowly retraced her steps across the room and murmured: "All right, kid, you've got my attention.  Keep talking."

            "They're…they're for you," Yug explained.  "All of them."

   Cautiously, Jezebel selected one of the diamonds and held it closer to the gas lamp on the wall.  She turned it around and around before letting out a low whistle and dropping it back into Yug's hand.  "All right," she stated.  "I'll take your job.  Who's the mark?"

            "The ruler," answered Ryou.

            "The…." She trailed.  "Are you out of your _skulls?_"  She backed across the room, looking from me to Yug to Ryou as though she was afraid we were about to attack her.  "No way am I going to try a stunt like that!  I'm not suicidal, you know.  Good luck finding anybody psycho enough to try it!"

   Jezebel went to flounce off through the curtain, but Anita emerged at the exact same moment with an amused grin on her face.  "Actually, Jez, you're kind of stuck," she stated, pushing Jezebel away from the curtain.

            "What in the _hell_ are you talking about, Anita?" Jezebel growled.

   Anita's smile stretched wider and she cheerfully replied: "According to Assassin Guild rules, you can't back out of a job once you've agreed to take it on, and unless I'm mistaken, I heard you say 'All right, I'll take your job.  Who's the mark?'  That, my friend, classifies as accepting the job."

            "But—there's—that's…."

   Anita continued, ignoring Jezebel's stammering.  "Of course, you _could _take it up with the Assassin's Guild.  I'm sure you're very confident in your case, since the punishment for backing out of a job you've already accepted is _death_, after all…."

            "But if I kill _you,_ there won't be any case for the Guild to look at in the first place!" snarled Jezebel.  Out came the claws as she made a fast jab at Anita's neck.

"I think not," Anita calmly stated, blocking the blow and taking hold of Jezebel's wrist.  There was a blur of motion that was so confusing it was enough to make your eyes pop and Jezebel laid prone on the floor as Anita casually straightened her hair.  "I've got to get out of here.  I'll miss my curtain call," she said, heading for the door.  "I assume you'll be taking the job, Jez, or else I'll open a case with the Assassin's Guild.  Tootles!"  She flipped her hand in a quick wave, gave Yug, Ryou and I a wink and raced out the door.

   Jezebel painfully got to her feet, muttering: "Anita, you _bitch!"  _She dug her claws into the wall and yanked down with a roar.  The plaster gave way; leaving ten long, trailing holes in the wall.  Jezebel stepped back, retracted the claws and eyed her handiwork approvingly.

   Ryou was the first to recover from her outburst.  He cleared his throat and queried: "So…you _are_ working for us…right?"

   The assassin grumbled, but replied: "Yes.  I'm stuck with the three of you.  What luck.  All right, kiddies, I've got to stay here until after my dance number.  Meet me down at the docks in twenty minutes.  If you don't show up I'm assuming you've canceled.  Got it?"

~Bakura's POV~

   I walked down the alleyway, cursing the Pharaoh with every step.  _For Ra's sake, _I thought.  _Is it really necessary to slink around these back roads?  What does the Pharaoh care if a few of these ridiculous mortals are spooked by our appearances?  If the fools are stupid enough to believe in ghosts they deserve to be scared.  A good jolt would probably force some sense through their thick skulls._

   I peered out of the shadows of the alley, into the wide street beyond.  Mortals crowded the sidewalks and choked the road with their cars, all hurrying along to Gods know where, completely oblivious that their worthless lives were in jeopardy.

            "Tomb Robber!" hissed the Pharaoh.  "Stand away from the mortals."

   I took another look at the scores of mortals rushing past the ally, all too occupied with their own insignificant worries to spare a glance my way and offered a derisive snort.  _All so pointless, _I thought before turning away from the road and sliding back into the deeper shadows of the scrappy side road.

   We had been tracking the source of the imbalance for several hours, and it was a very trying process.  Just as it seemed certain that we had located the source's position, the wretched thing would simply pop out of existence and reappear someplace halfway across the city.  _As if it's toying with us, _I thought.  _And the Pharaoh's tracking methods certainly aren't making the task any easier…._

   If our path happened to run across one of the main roads frequented by the mortals, the Pharaoh insisted that we keep to the labyrinth of back roads and alleys.  _To add an extra three miles to your path to avoid a single road is idiocy!  How does the Pharaoh ever expect to find the source this way? _I wondered.

   As if to spite me, a tremendous wave of energy washed through the alley.  It was a cold, dead energy that chilled my very soul and left a feeling of nervous anticipation crackling in the air.

            "The source," said the Pharaoh.  _My, my, my, Pharaoh.  You certainly have a talent for stating the obvious,_ I silently congratulated him.

   I looked down to the end of the alley to a most unexpected sight indeed.  The source was causing fluctuations between the two realms that were so severe everything within five feet of it appeared oddly warped and stretched.  But the source itself was nothing more threatening than a tall, muscular man dressed all in shades of black.  _A mortal! _I thought.  But was it?  He had no face.  _Impossible, _I told myself.  _It is only the shadows.  _The only evidence of a face that I saw was a single, golden eye.

   I knew that eye.  I knew it very well.  One tends to know the items one has stolen, after all.  It was the Millennium Eye.  _My _Millennium Eye!

   No sooner had the thought registered in my mind when the man began to distort and, with another surge of energy, vanished from the alleyway.  A faint feeling of tension lingered behind him for a moment before evaporating away as well, leaving me to wonder: _What is this?  What are we up against?_

**Author's Notes: **Hello, all!  Sorry about the lack of updates in the past couple of weeks—I was on vacation with no Internet access.  I _did_ manage to do something constructive before I left town, though.  I sat down and I planned out where I'm going with this monster!  Currently, it looks as if there are going to be 14 chapters, plus the prologue and epilogue.  Now if I can just get myself back to weekly updates again….

Thanks to Ryan-Ookami, KarribuHater59, AmunRa, rikki-the-fox and Cherry15 for all your reviews!  You guys are the best!


	7. Chapter 6: My Bonny Lies Over the Ocean

*CHAPTER 6*

~Yuugi's POV~

   The docks were a very different place by night.  The strip of beach seemed to have become no more than a deserted bit of sand and the constant hum of voices and activity was replaced by the eerie cry of seagulls.  A cool breeze had picked up since our last visit, turning the salty ocean spray icy-cold.  The only light for as far as I could see came from the moon and stars.  It was the kind of place that makes your skin crawl and your stomach churn.

   True to her word, Jezebel was there, waiting for us at the point where land meets sea.  She signaled us to her with a dark lantern and irritably demanded: "What took you so long?  I was about ready to leave" in a fierce whisper.

            "Why did you bring us out here?" replied Ryou, shivering a bit as the mist began to settle on his face and in his hair.

            "Not so loud!" Jezebel hissed back, eyes flashing.  "We need a boat if we're ever going to set foot on the same country as the ruler, let alone get close enough to kill him.  Now, I don't happen to own a boat and I'm assuming none of you do, either, so we're going to have to borrow one."

   Jou quietly began to snicker and Jezebel whipped around to face him with an angry hiss.  "Why doncha cut da sweet-talk crap and say it straight?  Either way it means we're stealin' a boat, right?" he asked.

            "Because we're not _going _to steal it!" she snapped.  She cut herself off with a short, soundless gasp and nervously scanned the beach before lowering her voice back to a breathy whisper and adding: "We're going to bring it back when we're finished."

   Jou snorted under his breath at this statement and Jezebel narrowed her eyes to dangerous slits.  The next thing we knew, those awful claws of hers were out and at Jou's neck.  "We are going to bring it back when we are finished," Jezebel slowly repeated.  "Is that really such a humorous statement?"

   Eyes wide, Jou hastily shook his head.  Jezebel smiled and nodded.  "Good," she said as she retracted the claws.  "It's always refreshing to know I'm not in the company of complete idiots."

   The four of us trudged off across the beach in stony silence until we came within sight of a long, wooden pier that stretched just past the shallows in the torpidly calm water.  Although I wasn't crazy about the idea of stealing (or "borrowing") a ship, I couldn't help but feel a little excited as I caught sight of the various boats moored up and down the long walkway.  _I wonder which one we'll be using? _I thought to myself, allowing my eyes to wander from boat to boat, drinking in every detail of each.  From the smallest ships, barely bigger than a rowboat to a huge, gold-painted monster the size of a yacht, we definitely had options.

   I was about to start off down the pier to take a closer look at the carving on one of the more ornate crafts when a felt a hand on my arm and was yanked backwards hard enough to fall back on my rear.  I looked up to see Jezebel glaring down at me.

            "What—" I started, but that was all I got out before she clamped a hand over my mouth.  "Hey!" I tried to shout, but it came out as a muffled, choked off noise.

   As I watched, she put a finger to her lips and threw a significant look down the pier.  I followed her gaze and saw two husky men stationed about midway down the walkway, sharing a lantern between them.  _Guards! _I thought.  _I can't believe I didn't think of that!_  I nodded to show I understood and she slowly removed her hand.

            "Now what're we gonna do?" Jou queried in a voiceless whisper.

            "We need a distraction," whispered Ryou.

            "Nice idea, kid.  Go right ahead," answered Jezebel.

   Ryou's eyes went wide and he took an unsteady step back.  "Me?" he squeaked.  "But I—"

            "It was your idea, you know," Jezebel interrupted.  "Just keep them occupied long enough for us to slip onto a boat and we'll get you on somehow, OK?"

   Ryou looked desperately from me to Jou, silently begging us to take his place or offer him an out, but I said nothing and Jou just smiled and quietly wished him luck.  With a sigh, he began to creep down the pier, wincing with every loud, hollow step as though the sound had the power to kill him.

   It wasn't long before one of the men camped out on the walkway heard the clomping footsteps and shouted: "Oi!  Who's there?"

            "M-me," stammered Ryou.  He paused uncertainly before adding: "Elijah."

            "Well whaddaya know, Greg, it _is_ 'im!" the other man exclaimed.  "Come on over, Elijah, ol' buddy.  Long time no see!"  Ryou tittered nervously and mechanically made his way farther down the pier.  

   The first man was just saying: "So what've you been up to lately, Elijah?" when Jezebel made a _follow me_ gesture and began tiptoeing towards the closest boat—a relatively small wood craft with a single, butter-yellow sail.

   Jou and I followed close behind Jezebel, hardly daring to breathe.  _We're too loud, _I worried, eyes glued to the two guards.  Ryou had somehow managed to get them to turn their backs to us.  _They've got to hear us.  We sound like a herd of wild horses, for goodness sake!  They're going to turn around.  Any second now they'll turn around and see us…._

   And then we were there.  Jezebel motioned for us to get into the boat and Jou and I were happy enough to obey.  Within seconds, we were both safely hidden from the guards' view.

   The tiny boat wasn't nearly as stable as the huge cruise ship I'd been on during Duelist Kingdom.  The floor seemed to buck and rock with every tiny little wave that passed under.  Jou and I were so occupied with getting ourselves used to this new unsteady surface, we didn't notice that Jezebel hadn't gotten on the boat after us until we heard the screams from the guards, followed by two heavy thuds.  Moments later, Jezebel reappeared with a slightly miffed Ryou in tow.

            "I don't think that was entirely necessary," Ryou was berating.  "They were about to just give us a boat.  You really didn't need to knock them out.  If you would have just—ulp!"  His scolding was cut short as Jezebel roughly picked him up and tossed him into the boat beside Jou and me.  He landed hard and sat up glaring at the assassin while rubbing at an already bruising elbow.

   Jezebel didn't seem the least bit sorry as she landed lightly on the deck and began working at the mooring ropes.  "Yes, and I suppose—" (She yanked viscously at a knot in the rope)  "—it would have been better—" (_yank) _"—to leave them—" (_yank)_ "—as witnesses…." (Another _yank _and the knot yielded).  "I suppose that would have been just the thing.  Ha!  Off we go!" she cried, taking in the last of the mooring rope and pushing off from the pier.  She leaned hard on the tiller, and the boat pitched and jerked in a wobbly circle until the wind caught its sails and pushed us away from the dock.  "Anyways, it's not like I permanently disfigured them or anything," she added as the pier slipped away behind us.

   We sailed without speaking for a long time after that.  The land became a dark line on the horizon before disappearing altogether.  The stars seemed to grow clearer and brighter and the briny smell of ocean was all around.  Ryou fell asleep stretched out on his back, and I was close to drifting off myself when Jou whispered: "Yug, you sleepin'?"

            "Mmmm?  No, Jou," I blearily replied.

            "Can…can we talk, Yug?"

   I sat up and rubbed at my eyes.  "Sure," I yawned.  "What's up?"

   Jou lowered his head and stared hard at a plank with a caulked-up knothole in it before answering: "Neva' mind.  It's stupid.  Forget it."

            "No, go on.  What is it?"

            "It's just…what're we doin' here?"

   I blinked, surprised.  This sure didn't sound like the happy-go-lucky Jounouchi I knew.  "Huh?" I asked.

            "I mean it.  What're we doin' here?" He repeated, never taking his eyes off that plank.  "We're not supposed ta be here, in dis place.  It's all wrong.  I mean, everyone's callin' you Aiden and Ryou Elijah…hell, I'm not even a real _human_ in dis loony bin."  He paused and blinked furiously and I pretended not to see.  "'N den there's everything dat happened back at dat house before all dis crap.  What eva' happened wit' all dat?"

   I shivered at the memory and hugged my arms across my stomach, trying to forget the coppery taste of blood in my throat.  "I don't know," I whispered back.  "For now, the best we can do is worry about one thing at a time.  You know; take things as they come."

            "Yeah…I guess…." He trailed and leaned back against the gunwale of the boat.  "Sorry ta bug ya about it."

            "No, it's OK."  There was a long pause.  I allowed my gaze to wander to the stars and found the Big Dipper—or maybe it was the Little Dipper…I never could tell the difference.  "Hey, Jou?" I asked.

            "Yeah?"

            "What's it like; being a robot?"

   He smiled and chuckled at the question.  "It's not much different from bein' human.  At least _I_ didn't know da difference…."  He stopped and the smile faltered ever so slightly.  "It's weird, though, too.  Like dat no blood thing back there?  Dat was just scary…."

   He was about to go on, but at that moment a chortling came from the direction of the tiller.  "So the little robot boy has feelings," Jezebel snickered.  "Honestly, if all I have to hear through this whole trip is that drama shit I'll be sick."

            "Hey!" Jou yelled, temper flaring.  "It's your own fault for listenin' in on our conversation!"

   Jezebel yawned in response before saying: "Feh.  Whatever.  Just so you know, we'll be to the ruler's country in about three days."

            "Hey, wait a second!  We're not supposed ta be goin' to da ruler first!" Jou shouted.

            "Oh?  Then where do you suggest we go, _mon capitain?"_

            "We're supposed ta go see some duke named Casper," explained Jou.

   Jezebel wrinkled her nose in disgust.  "Casper?" she questioned.  "What do you want with that fop?"

            "He's got a laptop," I replied.

   The assassin threw her head back and laughed at the statement.  "Casper?" she managed to gasp.  "W-with a laptop?"  She dissolved into a fit of giggles before wheezing: "What's he going to do with a laptop?  U-use it for a m-mirror?  Ahahaha!"

            "Dante said he'd have one," Jou insisted above her laughter.

            "W-whatever you say," she chuckled, wiping tears from her cheeks.  She leaned on the tiller and adjusted the sail slightly.  "Casper…with a laptop…heh."

   For two days, we sailed out on the open sea.  Actually, to be fair, Jezebel did most of the sailing, since none of us knew much about boats or where we were going.  The weather was perfect and the wind always seemed to blow in the right direction.  It was as if fate or destiny or whatever higher power is out there was smiling down on us…until the third day.

   The morning dawned gray and clouded over, with a light drizzle of rain.  The wind came in short puffs that would belly the sail out for ten or fifteen minutes at a time before suddenly going still and leaving the sail slack. Jezebel stayed at the tiller all morning, watching the swells around us with an apprehensive expression on her face.

   Around noon, the wind grew steadier; but it was a cold breeze with a coppery smell to it.  Jezebel hitched up the tiller and laid down for a nap after making us swear to wake her up if the wind made even the slightest change.  The three of us were left with nothing to do except watch as the water around our little boat changed from a clear blue to an angry grayish color and the rain picked up.

   About an hour later, the swells became rough and choppy and Ryou shouted: "Look at _that!" _

  _That _turned out to be a stand of very ominous-looking black clouds gathering on the horizon.  It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what those clouds meant: a storm—and a nasty one by the looks of it.

            "Oh, shit," whispered Jou.  "Um, Jezebel?  You really might wanna look at dis," he said, poking the assassin in the ribs.

            "Whaa…?" she sleepily mumbled before catching sight of the towering dark monsters on the horizon.  _"Shit!" _she shrieked as she lurched to the tiller.  She adjusted the sail, cursing fervently all the while.

            "Anything we can do to help?" I inquired through her stream of obscenities.

            "_No!" she snapped.  "Just stay out of my way, damn it!"_

   I returned to Jou and Ryou to find them both staring wild-eyed over the gunwales of the boat.  "This is going to be bad," Ryou stated, eyes glued to a peaked, white-capped wave that swept past.

            "Hey!  Jezebel!  How far are we from Casper's place?" Jou hollered over the howl of the wind.

            "Not too far," replied Jezebel from her station at the tiller.  "Five—maybe ten knots.  We'll be there in an hour or so."

But an hour came and went and still there was no sign of land.  The wind was whipping a cold spray from the peaked waves into our faces and the sail billowed and fell flat erratically in the unpredictable gusts.  Rain came down in sheets and pooled in the boat around our feet, and then around our ankles.

   The first big wave came on suddenly; a foamy wall of gray-brown water that pitched the deck high in the air before it came crashing back down with a _slap_ loud enough for all of us to hear it over the shrieking wind.  A wave of spray surged over the bow to bring the water level up to my knees and the boat sluggishly began to right itself.

            "Goddamn it!" Jezebel screamed.  "Are you all morons?  I said start bailing unless you want us to sink!"

   I searched around until I found a bucket floating in the ever-deepening pool of water and started heaving bucketfuls over the gunwales, back into the ocean.

            "We're gonna sink!" Jou yelled as he bailed.  "We're _screwed!"_

   Ryou paused in mid-throw and went pale.  "Oh my God!" he bawled.

   I followed his gaze and saw a second wave, this one taller than our boat approaching from the side.  Jezebel threw herself on the tiller and the boat started to execute a shaky turn to take the huge swell from behind, but it was all so, so slow.

   The monstrous wall of water hit us hard and I was thrown against the gunwale as the deck went almost vertical.  Water swept aboard as the ship reluctantly righted itself and swayed drunkenly.

   Over the raging of the storm, I heard Jezebel roar: "Keep bailing!  Keep bailing, damn you!"  Or maybe it was the roar of surf breaking on land.  We'd found land!

   I squinted, tried to see which direction the sound of the crashing noise was coming from but saw nothing but the churning water, beaten white as it crashed against rocks that seemed to have appeared from nowhere.

            "Rocks!" I shouted, hoping Jezebel would hear me in time to steer out of the way.

   The boat swerved hard to port, but it wasn't enough.  I had just enough time to hear Jezebel scream: "Shit!  Brace yourselves!" before there was a cracking noise and the whole boat shuddered.

   Another monster wave bore down on us from the side and we spun crazily before we crunched into another stand of rocks.  That was the last straw for our poor little boat.  The sound of splintering wood cut through the roar of water on rocks and suddenly I was tossed and turned in the waves.

   I clawed my way to the surface and gasped for breath.  "Jou!" I yelled.  "Ryou!  Jez—" a wall of salty seawater hit me from behind and I was back under, flailing wildly, nose and throat burning as I choked on the salty water.

   Surface again.  I sucked air and hacked up the water I'd tried to breathe.  A scream came from somewhere behind me and I fought against the heaving water, trying to get to whoever it was.

   Another wall of water and I was spinning out of control through the waves.  Head above the surface, being blasted with pelting rain, under and being blinded with bubbles, and back up again.  I opened my mouth and got a mouthful of water.  Tried to spit it out, choked instead.

   Something hit me hard in the back of the head.  Part of the boat?  A rock?  Who knew?  It didn't matter.  Nothing mattered anymore as I slipped into the roaring darkness of unconsciousness that pulled at me….

~Honda's POV~

   I slammed on the brakes as a fat guy in a dumpy pickup truck pulled out of a side street directly in front of me, tires squealing.  "Bastard," I growled and laid on the horn.

            "Honda, maybe _I should drive," Anzu apprehensively suggested from the passenger seat as I blew past the asshole in the truck and gave him a gesture that definitely wasn't a peace sign._

            "No way, Anzu," I replied, taking a sharp right on two wheels to beat the red light.  "You don't even know the way out there."

            "Well, will you _please slow down?"_

   Slow down?  Some bastard had called her up and threatened her after making Shizuka cry and trying to kill Jounouchi, Yuugi, Ryou, Mai and Kaiba and she wanted me to _slow down?_  I didn't even bother to grace such a stupid suggestion with an answer as I pressed on the gas and watched the speedometer edge from 60 to 65 miles per hour.

            "You're going thirty over the speed limit!" she screeched.  "We're going to get pulled over!"

   So what?  What was a speeding ticket to me?  Besides, there weren't any cops out on this godforsaken road to worry about anyway.  It was all right.

   _We're going to find that bastard, _I thought as the trees whipped by in a green blur on either side of the road.  _And when I get my hands on him I'll kill him.  I'll rip his goddamned eyes out._

            "You're going to miss it!" Anzu warned.

            "Goddamn it, Anzu, I know where I'm going!" I snapped.  She went quiet and glared out the window, disgusted.  I sighed and said: "Sorry.  Forget I said that, OK?"

            "Yeah.  Sure."

   I hung another left, onto a bumpy gravel road and I slowed down enough to make it through without killing the both of us.  A couple of minutes later, we were parked at the foot of a hill, between a white and blue police car and the ugly rattletrap that my best friend drove.

   _Jounouchi's car._  I almost lost it when I saw that dumpy old jalopy.  Memories flashed through my head at the sight of it; memories of me giving Jounouchi a bad time for buying the crappy old thing, of him insisting he'd "fix it up", of useless door locks and stalling out.  Now…now I _couldn't tell him what a rip off it was, and he __couldn't "fix it up."  Not now.  Maybe not ever._

   _No! _I silently yelled.  _Don't think like that!  He's still alive; they all are!  None of them are going to…going to….  _I couldn't even bring myself to think of that scary D-word.

            "Honda, are you all right?" Anzu whispered, laying her hand on my shoulder.

   I took a deep breath and nodded, forcing myself to look away from the battered old car beside us.  "Let's go," I said and together, we began to follow the narrow dirt path up to Hill House, the place where all this shit started.

   Looking back, I'm not really sure what we thought we'd find.  A dropped shell?  A glove with the attacker's name sewn into it?  A wallet complete with picture ID of the attacker?  Could have been.

   We barely made it halfway up the path before we were stopped by the police officer.  "Hey!  What are you kids doing out here?" he demanded, stepping right into the middle of the path in front of us.

            "We…we were just looking around," Anzu answered, in a voice that couldn't have sounded any guiltier.

            "Oh?  Looking around, eh?  Were you 'looking around' for anything in particular?"

   I gritted my teeth and resisted the urge to punch him in the gut.  _Don't be stupid, I thought.  __Don't piss him off.  "We just wanted to make sure you caught everything," I explained.  The officer raised an eyebrow and I added: "The people that were hurt up here were…__are our friends."_

            "Well, I'm sorry to hear that, but you two can't be poking around up here," said the cop.  "You're going to have to leave the sleuthing to the police department and get out of here unless you want to be arrested for tampering with the evidence."

            "Please, sir, they're our friends and we just want to help," Anzu insisted.

            "Sorry, little lady, but like I said before, the two of you have got to clear out."

            "But officer—"

            "Come on, Anzu," I interrupted.  "Let's get out of here." _Before I try to beat him up, I silently added as I started to make my way back down the path.  She gave me a questioning look, but turned and followed me without a word._

   We made it back down to the foot of the hill after a couple of minutes and I fumbled in my pocket for my keys as we reached my car.  I couldn't help but take one more look at the old jalopy that Jounouchi drove as I unlocked the door.  _Why in the hell would somebody do something like this? I wondered._

   Anzu moved to open her door, but stopped and plunged her hand into her purse instead as her cell phone began to ring.  "Hello; this is Anzu," she answered, then gasped.

   I turned to look at her and saw her eyes wide and her face white with surprise and fear…and anger?  "What is it?" I half-whispered.

   She pressed her lips into a thin line and soundlessly handed to phone through the window to me.  I looked from her to the phone, confused, then brought it up to my ear to listen.

            "…And if you want to stay alive, you'd better keep you goddamn snot nose out of all this!  You hear me, you dumb bitch?  Huh?  Do you hear me?" snarled a deep, ugly voice.

            "Who is this?" I demanded.

            "Quit being so damned nosy, you dumb ass kid!" growled the voice.

            "Hey!" I yelled.  "What—"  I trailed as I heard a sharp _click_ from the other line, followed by the toneless buzz of a dial tone.

**Author's Notes: **Ha!  I finally wrote a semi on time chapter!  Hope everyone enjoyed it.  Oh, and don't worry; I didn't forget about our dear Seto.  He'll (finally) be back next chapter!  Yay!  Thanks to AmunRa, Cherii and Ouvalyrin for reviewing!


	8. Chapter 7: The Adventures of Seto

*CHAPTER 7*

~Seto's POV~

   The world had ended.  That was the only plausible explanation for the miles of gaping emptiness that stretched as far as I could see.  Where there had been skyscrapers and office buildings, there was nothing.  Streets constantly busy with traffic and pedestrians had disappeared without a trace.  But perhaps most shocking of all was the very conspicuous absence of the KaibaCorp building.

   _KaibaCorp…._  A virtual citadel that towered over the streets of Domino City, able to be seen from a mile away, and I sat at the top of it.  I could look through the tinted windows of my office and watch as thousands of people scurried through the streets like so many ants.  Of course, far more often than not, the only view I was awarded was nothing more than darkened streets and empty buildings as I worked long into the wee hours of the morning.  A citadel…and a prison.  That was what that building had been to me.  But now, it, along with all else that had been a part of the city was gone.

   Domino City had simply dropped off the face of the earth, leaving in its place a barren plane of dying grass and gnarled trees.  The air seemed heavy, poisoned with an eerie, unnatural silence.  Cheerless sunlight filtered through heavy gray clouds and gave everything an almost nightmarish quality.  I stood in the center of it all, where my mammoth prison used to loom above all that surrounded it, trying to make sense of everything that had happened to me in only the past hour.

   I'd woken to find my home in ruins, occupied by a group of specter-like figures in black—_how had that happened?_  Mokuba was nowhere to be found—_was he dead?  _I had become a monster; some kind of half-human freak—_when did that happen?_  And I'd escaped death by _flying _away from it, of all things.

   Those first few moments of flying were unreal.  I was gliding through the air, my body using muscles it had never before possessed, let alone used.  The ground that had been rushing up to meet me suddenly fell away and I felt weightless as my wings began to catch the wind.  It was as though I was in a dream, but the all too real screams of "SACRIFICE!  SACRIFICE!" fading away behind me and the feeling of the wind in my eyes were more than enough to convince me that I was most definitely awake.  I was nearly ready to believe I had escaped the danger…until the wind changed and all hell broke loose.

   It started with an awkward lurch as my wings hit dead air.  It was like the unbalanced feeling you get when you miss the last step at the bottom of a flight of stairs.  One second, it's smooth sailing, the next your whole body seems to plunge down too far too fast.

   I tried to correct, but there was a sickening blur of motion and suddenly the ground was tilted at an impossible angle.  To my right were swaying treetops that seemed to be growing out of a vertical landscape.  To my left was an endless expanse of open air and clouds.

   I closed my eyes and resisted the urge to throw up at the feeling of extreme disorientation.  _I'm on my side, _I thought.  _I just flipped onto my side.  I can handle this.  All right…left wing down…._

Another lurch.  "Shit," I muttered.  I'd overcompensated.  Before I could even think about how I was going to correct my error, the wind shifted and I was out of control.

   I'm not sure how far I fell before I hit the trees.  I managed to avoid bashing my head in on the first tree that stood in my path and was immediately surrounded by branches that scratched at me as I whipped past them.  Creeper vines wrapped themselves around me, tangling around my arms and tying down my wings

   Panic began to set in as I clawed at vines that curled ever tighter around my neck.  My vision was dotted with black splotches that seemed to expand with every short, rasping breath I took.  My head was swimming as I flapped hard in a last effort to disentangle myself.

   The vines snapped and then I was shooting forward at an impossibly fast speed, ripping through curtains of vine and branch.  I tried to use my wings to stop or at least slow my insane charge through the forest canopy only to find that the best I could do was bank around the larger, more dangerous obstacles in my path.

   I had just enough time to think: _Well, this is certainly a wonderful way to die, now, isn't it?_ before my left wing crunched into something that didn't yield.  The force of the impact was enough to send me spinning through the air, smashing into anything that happened to be in the way.  A particularly large limb caught me across the stomach and I coughed, the wind knocked out of me.  Then I was on the ground, skidding and rolling before finally grinding to a painful halt.

   I lay on the mossy forest floor until the world stopped spinning enough for me to force my way to my feet.  I cautiously flexed my arms, legs and wings and was relieved to find that nothing was broken.  My hair and face were sticky with blood and dirt from various scrapes and scratches and I could feel a marbling of bruises forming all over my back and chest, but luckily, I'd escaped with nothing beyond that.

   _I'm just so goddamned lucky today, aren't I? _I thought._  All right, it's time to figure out what the hell is going on.  _I was about to start back in the direction of my mansion, but stopped myself.  _I obviously can't go back there, _I told myself.  _I suppose I'll have to head over to KaibaCorp to get all this shit straightened out._

   After about an hour of hiking through the woods (yes, I walked.  I wasn't about to attempt flying again unless it became a necessity), I arrived to where Domino City should have been.

   I walked through that wasteland of nothing and found only one trace of the thriving city that had been there, so alive and bustling with activity what seemed to be only hours ago.  It was nothing more than a shallow ditch in the ground, with only two or three inches of muddy rainwater collected in the bottom.  The lake—or what was left of it.

   _What in the **hell** is all this? _I wondered.  I strained to remember anything that might explain why the world had suddenly gone insane and drew a blank.  _All I can remember is that house.  Hill House….  I was there…and then I woke up here._

   Something had happened there.  Something important.  I could feel it gnawing, out of reach at the back of my mind.  _An explosion.  _Was that it?_  There was an explosion…._  There was more; there _had_ to be more.

   _Pain all up and down my back as I choked on hot, sulfurous air…Oh, God, I was going to burn alive!  Somebody please get me out of this hellhole.  Please don't let me die like this; not like this!  Somebody…please…help me…._

   I gasped as I snapped back to reality.  "What am I doing here?" I whispered.  "Am I dead?  Did I die back there?  Where is everybody?  Why doesn't anybody ANSWER ME, GODDAMN IT?" I screamed, slashing a branch off a tree with my claws.

            "Sacrifice…sacrifice…."  _No; not again!_

   I could see the figures making their way toward me, a sea of billowing black cloaks, all chanting: "Sacrifice…sacrifice…."  _Yuugi was there.  At Hill House._  Where did that come from?

   I turned and began to run as the endless mass of people in black charged after me.  _Yuugi was there.  He invited you._

"Sacrifice!  Sacrifice!"

            _That's why you went out there…to duel Yuugi Mutou…._

   The figures were gaining.  Their cries of: "Sacrifice!  Sacrifice!" were growing louder, more frenzied.

            _Find Yuugi…._

"SACRIFICE!  SACRIFICE!"

            _He's the one that got you into this hellhole…._

            "SACRIFICE!"

   I spread my wings, but felt a tug from behind and almost toppled over backward.  One of the figures had me by the tail.  _It doesn't matter, _a desperate voice in the back of my head screamed.  _Just go! _

            "SACRIFICE!"__

   My wings hit something and I heard a grunt from whoever it was that had hold of me, and then I was free.  More of the cloaked figures were surging towards me, but I was already gaining altitude.  By the time they reached me, I was high above their heads and flying for the horizon with only one thought ringing clear in my mind: _Find Yuugi._

   I don't know how long I flew, looking for a city, a town, any sign of civilization.  I flew over miles of forest and open plains without seeing a single living soul.  I flew until I saw the ocean, an endless stretch of blue and green water glittering in the sun.  I flew until I could no longer see land, only that inexhaustible expanse of sea.  I flew until the winds began to shift and change wildly…and then I started to feel a bit apprehensive.

   _There's a storm coming, _I thought as I adjusted to another shift.  _I've got to find land soon.  _Much as I'd improved over the hours (days?) of flying I'd done, I wasn't about to risk flying through a storm with land nowhere in sight.

   My apprehension soon turned to downright worry as the wind continued to grow more and more unpredictable.  It became increasingly difficult for me to retain control of my flight.  I was nearly flipped onto my side far too frequently for comfort and narrowly missed plunging into the churning yellow-gray water below twice before I noticed the hulking mountain of black clouds massing on the horizon.

   _Correction; it's not a storm, _I thought.  _It's an all-out hurricane.  There's no chance in hell I'll be staying airborne in that._  Luckily, I saw land directly ahead of me.  It appeared to be no more than a thin, dark line on the horizon from as far away as I was, but it would do.  I raced the storm to shore and set foot on solid ground just as the first fat drops of rain began to fall.

   The storm came on strong almost immediately after I arrived, and I was glad that I'd had the sense to avoid landing on the beach.  From my vantage point atop one of the craggy cliffs that flanked either side of the sandy coastline, I was able to see vicious, white-capped breakers pounding the shore, dragging anything unfortunate enough to stand in their way out to sea.

   I was about to make my way farther inland to find a bit of shelter from the wind and rain that was battering down when I saw a flash of pale yellow between two enormous swells of water.  It had only been a momentary flicker, a fraction-of-a-second hint of color, but it was enough to catch my attention.

   _Was that a ship? _I wondered, and squinted out across the heaving waves, fishing for another glimpse of color.  I saw only the angry, churning water, whipping itself into white foam in its frenzy.  _It couldn't have been, _I thought.  _Nobody would be insane enough to be sailing in this.  It must have been driftwood.  That's all._

   I turned away from the violent waters and began to pick my way through a thick bit of underbrush, thoroughly convinced that I'd been imagining things.  And then I heard the crash; a loud _crack _that cut through the air with the sound of snapping planks.

   _Oh, shit, _I thought, whipping back around to scan the dangerous swells.  _Somebody was_ out there.__

   Bits of flotsam from the wreck began to dot the waves.  A bit of splintered wood here, a piece of sodden sail there.  I heard a garbled scream and then I saw an all too familiar tri-toned head disappear under a wave.  _It was Yuugi._

   I narrowed my eyes and growled under my breath, annoyed.  _Oh no, I thought.  __You're not going to die without telling me what in the hell this is all about, Yuugi.  Don't even think __about it, damn it!_

   My wings, sore and achy after their long flight, screamed with protest as I spread them open, but I ignored the pain and inched my way to the edge of the cliff.  I stood, looking down at the turbulent water far below, searching for any sign of Yuugi as I prepared myself for the jump._  Don't die before I find you, I silently ordered, and dove._

   In the ten minutes since I'd reached land, the wind had picked up to full gale force.  I was whipped around in every direction and nearly driven into the sheer cliff wall as I tried to gain control of my descent.  I managed to get my bearings before I plunged into the crashing water and hovered for a moment, just out of reach of the waves that were hammering on below me before flaring my wings and starting off in the direction I'd seen Yuugi go under.

   _Where is he? _I wondered, scouring the waves for any trace of Yuugi and finding none.  Feeling rather foolish, I cleared my throat and shouted: "Yuugi!  Yuugi Mutou!", hoping that by some miracle he would hear me over the shrieking of the wind and the pounding of the surf.

            "K—Kaiba?" came a tentative call from somewhere to my left.  _Not Yuugi, I thought.  __It's that mutt…Jounouchi.  I'd know that accent anywhere.  The call came again, louder, more urgent: "Kaiba!  Hey, man, is dat you?"_

   _Damn, _I thought.  _All I wanted was a few answers and now I'm stuck playing the hero._  "Where are you?" I demanded, fighting the wind to move in the direction the voice had come from.

            "Ova' here!  I'm—oh, holy _shit!"_

   I found him clinging to a rock, hair matted down against his head like a drowned dog.  He was staring up at me, eyes so wide it was a wonder they didn't pop out of his skull.  _Probably laughing himself sick inside over how freakish I look, I stewed._

            "T-take Ryou first," he stuttered, never taking his eyes away from my wings and tail.  "He's ova' dere," (he jerked his head to the right) "and he ain't doin' so great."

   _This is getting ridiculous…._  I managed to find Ryou Bakura, half conscious and barely able to hold on to his rock.  After a moment of uncertainty as I attempted to maneuver against the wind, I had him by the arm.  He barely even gave me a glance with unfocused eyes as I pulled him out of the water and he hung limply in the air as I struggled to gain altitude.

   _Now where did the mutt go? _I wondered.  _I'll be damned if I'm going to make more than two trips out into this deathtrap.  "Jounouchi!" I yelled.  "Where are you, you stupid mutt?"_

            "I ain't a mutt, Kaiba, ya bastard!"

   _Smart move, insulting your rescuer, I thought as I caught sight of him.  _Idiot._  I pointedly ignored his outstretched arm, opting to seize him by the hair instead.  He screeched and flailed as I flapped hard and pulled him out of the water._

            "Stop moving!" I snarled as a particularly nasty gust of wind almost succeeded in throwing the three of us into an oncoming wave.

   By the time we reached the shore, my wings were burning, but I didn't allow myself a rest after depositing Ryou and Jounouchi on the beach.  I was afraid that if my wings stopped moving, they wouldn't be starting again for quite some time.

            "Yuugi Mutou!" I roared, once again surrounded by the seething waves.  "Yuugi!"

   A smooth feminine voice called from directly below me: "Hey, you!  Care to help a lady in need?"  _Mai Kujaku, I thought as I recognized the mane of gold-blonde hair._

   I executed a sharp turn as the wind made a violent change and managed to bring myself to hover just above the heaving water.  Thick ocean spray pelted into my face and eyes as I reached for Mai's arm and inquired: "Have you seen Yuugi?"

            "Hmm?  Oh, you must mean this little guy," she responded, motioning to a bedraggled-looking mass of tri-toned hair limply draped over one of her arms.  "I think he took a knock on the head.  Here, take him."  She lugged him out of the water and handed him up to me.

   _What did she mean by 'you must mean this little guy'? _I wondered as I secured Yuugi under my arm and took hold of her hand.  _Mai knows Yuugi.  Has she got amnesia or—"Ack!" I exclaimed as I noticed the drenched but unmistakable pair of feline ears perched atop her head.  I almost let her fall back into the briny water in my surprise, but checked myself in time and began to make my way back to shore._

   The muscles in my wings and all through my back shuddered dangerously with every stroke I took, threatening to give out.  I was hardly able to stay clear of the water as the shoreline drew closer and closer.  Finally, the white-foamed waves gave way to hard-packed sand and I was able to make a none-too-graceful landing.

   The jarring must have been what shook Yuugi out of his unconsciousness.  He lay on the sand, hacking and vomiting up the water that had gotten into his lungs.  Jounouchi and Ryou worriedly gathered around him, watching as he drew ragged breaths and helping him to sit up.

   When his coughs subsided to long, shaky gasps, I dropped to my knees to look him straight in the eye and stated: "All right, Yuugi.  Time to explain exactly what is going on."

            "Christ, Kaiba, can't ya cut him a little slack?" Jounouchi demanded.  "He just had a freakin' near-death experience, for crying out loud."

   I was tempted to offer a caustic remark regarding his parentage, but Yuugi broke in before I had a chance.  "Kaiba?" he queried.  "It's really you?"

   _No, it's the goddamned tooth fairy, _I thought.  _What is the matter with all of you?  "Yes, it's me," I snapped.  "And I want some answers.  _Right now_."_

   He was about to reply, but Mai cut him off with: "Look, I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't feel much like sticking around this place right now."  She sent a pointed glance at the breakers that were pounding the shore mere feet away from us.  "I say we head a little farther inland and _then _we talk."

            "Yes, that's a good idea, Jezebel," answered Ryou, apparently having recovered from his ordeal.

   Yuugi and Jounouchi both agreed and I was left with no choice but to follow as the four of them began to trudge off across the beach.

~Yami's POV~

   I glared at the soul before me, barely able to control the feelings of anger and contempt that boiled through me.  He stared back, eyes narrowed dangerously and arms crossed defiantly across his chest.  "Why did you not tell me of this earlier, tomb robber?" I hissed.

            "Because quite frankly, I knew you would react exactly like this," he responded, never taking his eyes off my face.

            "I never expected such cowardice out of you," I glowered.  "It's no excuse!"

   He balled his hands into fists and shouted: "It wasn't cowardice, pharaoh, it was common sense!"

   I gritted my teeth.  _Call it what you may, _I thought.  _It is cowardice, and you know it.  To withhold such information…._

   The tomb robber had only just informed me that he had stolen the Millennium Eye from Pegasus at Duelist Kingdom and it had been in his possession ever since.  While that alone was not nearly enough to cause such a severe imbalance between the two realms, it certainly couldn't be aiding the situation.

            "You may have caused the destruction of this world with your craven secret keeping," I growled.

            "Oh will you get off your high horse already, pharaoh?" he replied.  "You and I both know that is an outright lie.  Besides, you're missing the point."

   I raised an eyebrow.  "And what point is that?"

            "If I have possession of the Millennium Eye, how could the man back in the alley also own the Millennium Eye?"

            "Are you saying that you believe there are now two Millennium Eyes in existence?"

            "It would certainly explain the imbalance, wouldn't it?"

   _He's right, _I realized.  _But if that is true, how in the world did it happen?  And _why?_  It seems the more we discover, the more questions arise.  At this rate, the world will be destroyed long before we discover everything behind this mystery._

**Author's Notes: **Sorry about the lateness of this chapter (again…sheesh, I'm starting to sound like a broken record!).  It took me forever to get the Seto part right.  For some reason, I can't seem to get into his head—which is a real shame, since he's one of my favorite characters.  Anyways…a big thank you to Dragon's Venom, Cherii, Bakura3, dilanda and AmunRa for reviewing! 


	9. Chapter 8: Reaquaintances

*CHAPTER 8*

~Ryou's POV~

   Even if I live to be one hundred years old, I never want to lay eyes on another beach ever again.  Give me the desert, the mountains—somewhere far, far away from the salty waves and spray, if you please.  The Great Plains sound like a lovely travel destination…miles and miles of _land _for as far as the eye can see.

   Perhaps I've developed an unfair bias against the ocean.  After all, how could one who barely escaped its suffocating clutches come away from the incident without developing some form of partiality against it?  Still, I'm not ashamed to say that I would have much rather been wandering the sun-baked canyons of Death Valley that stormy night at the water's edge.

   White-capped walls of water smashed against the sandy shores with a ceaseless din of rushing, roaring and hissing.  Foam flew high into the air and floated back down into the writhing mass of gray-brown ocean with each wave that broke.  Cold, heavy raindrops splattered against my face and my hair lashed against my cheeks, whipped into a crazy dance by the wild wind.

   I stood, hugging my arms to my chest in an attempt to conserve what body heat I could.  Unfortunately, the action did little to aid my predicament; my teeth still chattered so badly I could barely speak. 

   Yuugi stood to my left and he looked every bit as miserable as I felt.  His soaked hair hung limp in his face and clutched to the back of his neck.  I would have laughed at the sight if my face hadn't been so frozen.

   To my right was Jounouchi.   Aside from being sopping wet, he seemed to be unaffected by the rain.  His arms didn't even sport a single goosebump as he wrung the seawater out of his shirt.  A hidden benefit of being a machine?  Maybe.

   Kaiba hovered behind us, quietly stretching his wings.  (_Can things get any stranger? _I wondered.  _Mai as a mutant assassin named Jezebel, Jounouchi as a robot and now Kaiba as some kind of Blue-Eyes White Dragon crossbreed…._) His face was an unreadable mask, as he glared at each of us in turn.

   Jezebel rounded out our pathetic little group.  She was busy extending and retracting her claws from her fingertips out of…annoyance?  Anger?  Sheer boredom?  It was impossible to tell which.

   Before us loomed a barrier of rocky cliff wall that looked so unstable the idea of scaling it was dangerous under even the best of conditions.  Now, slick with rain and treacherous wind, climbing over it was out of the question.

            "Well, this complicates things," Jezebel finally muttered.  "Looks like we're stuck here until the storm calms down."

            "Whaddaya mean 'we're stuck here'?" demanded Jounouchi.

            "Precisely what I said, kid.  These cliffs" (she jabbed a finger at the wall of stone in front of us) "circle the whole beach.  They go all the way out into the water.  So—"

            "Whoa, whoa, whoa!  Hold up a second!" Jounouchi held up a hand and Jezebel fell silent.  "Out into da water?  As in we're gonna be goin' swimming to get off dis beach?"

            "It's not far at all.  Thirty…forty meters at the longest.  All you've got to do is make it around the rock wall and—"

            "Jou—" Yuugi began, but Jounouchi wasn't about to let the subject drop.

            "Why didn't ya just take us there in da first place?  Huh?"

   Jezebel clenched her hands into fists and snapped, "Next time _you _try navigating through the goddamned hurricane, dumbass!  You should be glad I even managed to get us here at all!"

   Jounouchi (thankfully) decided not to push Jezebel any farther and instead turned around and said, "Hey, Kaiba, you don't think you could fly us up dere, do ya?  I mean since—"

            "No," came the reply in a tone that left absolutely no room for argument.

            "So what are we going to do then?" I questioned.  "We can't just stay out here in the rain until the storm passes."

            "Well, as I was going to say before I was so _rudely _interrupted," answered Jezebel with an acidic glare at Jounouchi.  "There are caves all around the base of these cliffs.  Any one of those will suit us well enough.  Now if you would follow me…."

   She led us across the beach, past a multitude of hollows that were little more than shallow scrapes in the wall of stone that blocked our way before finally settling on a hole that extended back into the cliff face a good twenty feet.

   We had no sooner walked into the cave (the ceiling was so low I had to stoop to make it through the entrance) when Kaiba rounded on Yuugi with, "All right, time for some explanations."

            "I'll say it's time," snorted Jounouchi.  "So uh…what's with da wings and tail?  Where'd _those _come from?"

   Kaiba gave him a look that could have melted steel and Jounouchi wisely went quiet.  Satisfied, Kaiba turned back to Yuugi.

            "Well…we're…somehow we managed to…uh…jump ahead in time a few years."  Kaiba raised his eyebrows but said nothing.  Emboldened, Yuugi went on, "This is the year 3145.  None of us know how we got here, but we _do _know how to get back to 2004."

   He paused and still, Kaiba didn't interrupt.  "See, we met this sorcerer named Dante who told us he could send us home if we could dethrone an evil man who everyone calls the Ruler because he rules over the entire world.  So we hired Jezebel—I know she looks like Mai, but really, she's not—to help us.  She's an assassin, you know."  

   He paused again, and Kaiba still made no response.  "So now all we've got to do is get into the Ruler's castle—oh, did I mention he's protected by the most advanced security system ever?  That's why we need to find this duke named Casper.  He has a laptop that we can use to hack into the security system.  And then, all we have to do is kill the Ruler and Dante will send us back home!"

   Kaiba waited a moment before inquiring, "Are you finished, Yuugi?"

            "Yes.  I think I've covered everything."

            "And you expect me to believe that drabble?"

            "Well…yes, it's the truth."

   Kaiba laughed a mirthless laugh before stating, "If you think I'm crazy enough to believe a story as outrageous as that, you are stupider than I was willing to give you credit for, Yuugi.  Now why don't you tell me what this is really all about?  Because I am _not _in the mood for jokes."

   After at least an hour of convincing and a more in-depth account of (most of) what had happened to us thus far, Kaiba finally believed us—although I think it was more out of a necessity to have some sort of explanation rather than actual trust.

   The only question he had for us once we'd finished speaking our piece was, "So why would I look like this?  The three of _you _still look normal.  Why should I be any different?"

            "Maybe it's for the same reason that Jounouchi would be a robot in this time," I suggested.

            "The mutt's a robot?"

            "Hey, Kaiba, I'm not—ow!" hollered Jounouchi.  He clutched at his arm and glared at Jezebel as she calmly retracted her claws.  "I'm not a damn toy, you know!" he snapped as he eyed the bloodless wound.  "That still hurts!"

            "It got the point across, didn't it?" Jezebel sniffed.

   Jounouchi looked as though he wanted to offer some sort of reply, but before he could get a word out, a voice from outside the cave shouted, "Is someone in there?  Hello?"

   The voice had a very strange effect on Jezebel—she stiffened, her eyes went wide with surprise (?) and her ears twitched.  "Isaac, is that you, you worthless, good-for-nothing, lazy sack of—"

            "Aha…hello, Jezebel.  Is that any way to talk to someone who's come to rescue you?" the voice lightly inquired.

            "Rescue?" shrieked the assassin.  She leapt to her feet, very nearly bashing her head on the roof of the cave, and exploded back out onto the open beach.  Her exasperated voice echoed back to us, "You call this a rescue, do you?  I see you've managed to wait until the storm ended to make your grand heroic entrance!"

            "Is it just you then?" Isaac asked, undaunted.

            "I have a few clients with me that need to speak with your master."

            "Is that so?" A very recognizable white-blond head poked into view and poor Yuugi looked as though he was about to have a heart attack.  Looking directly at us with a set of friendly, amethyst-colored eyes was Malik Ishtar.

   _Not the same Malik we all know, _I reminded myself.  _This is somebody completely different, like Jezebel, Dante and Anita…._

            "Well, don't just sit there in that hole," he laughed.  (Malik Ishtar…or rather, Isaac actually _laughed_ a happy, real chortle.)  "Come out here if you want me to take you to the duke."

   Yuugi quickly recovered enough to mouth _"Don't," _to Jounouchi, who looked as though he was ready to start ripping out Isaac's internal organs and the four of us crept out of the cave and back onto the beach.

   The storm had disappeared while we'd been huddled inside the cave and now watery sunlight bathed everything with a white-gray glow.  The waves were little more than mild swells that timidly lapped at the shore.  Only the faintest trace of breeze remained, barely enough to waft the salty smell of the sea to our noses.

            "Now then, Jezebel, I'll have you know that my late arrival can hardly be blamed on me," Isaac said as he began making his way across the beach to a decent-sized canoe that sat beached on the golden brown sand.  "Master Casper saw your ship when you were near the shore, not me.  He's the one who waited until the storm was over to send me to look for survivors."

            "Gee, what a great guy," Jounouchi muttered.  "That was sure considerate of him.  The bastard."

   Luckily, Isaac didn't hear Jounouchi's remark as he pushed the canoe into the shallow water and held it there, gently bobbing in the placid surf.  "Ladies first," he stated with a wink at Jezebel.

   The assassin rolled her eyes, but jumped into the canoe and took a seat near the back.  I slid into the seat in front of her, none too pleased to be seeing another boat so soon.  By the time Kaiba, Yuugi and Jounouchi had climbed aboard, our space had become rather cramped.  When Isaac stepped into his place at the front, I found myself with Yuugi's elbow in my back, my arms pinned to my sides and Kaiba's wings in my face.  The boat tipped and rocked if anybody made even the slightest movement as Isaac rowed out and around the rock wall.  We glided forward at a pace that seemed jerky and sudden without the benefit of a sail.  In all, it was a very uncomfortable (but thankfully, short) ride.

   We hit the shore on the opposite side of the cliffs with a light bump and the six of us piled out of the canoe and onto a narrow strip of beach that disappeared into a dense stand of palm trees and ferns.  Isaac pulled the little boat all the way up to the edge of the tropical plants before motioning for us to follow him.

   The walk through the tropical forest was a long and boring one.  Most of it was spent picking our way through dense tangles of creeper vines and other vegetation that hung in our way.  Our path was at a steady incline that was easy to climb for the first mile or so, but tiring soon after that.  When we finally emerged from the jungle and caught our first sight of the duke's home it was so sudden we were all stunned—except Isaac, who continued to chatter on as he had throughout the entire trek.

   To say the duke lived in a mansion would be understating it.  The place was large enough to be considered a small palace, looming several stories high.  The thatched roof alone must have taken acres and acres of grass to build.  But for all its size, it was graceful and airy, with an abundance of colored windows and intricate carvings at each door and window frame.

   We were standing at the edge of what looked to be some sort of an orchard, filled with uniform lines of orange and cherry trees.  "All these fruit trees you see here were sent to the Master from Sir Dante himself," Isaac proudly announced.  "They've got special enchantments on them so they'll grow in our climate."

   _Wow, _I thought as we followed Isaac through the orchard and over a bridge that spanned a koi pond the size of a lake.  _Talking about your over extravagance…._

   The inside of the palace was, if possible, even more ornamented than the outside.  Tapestries and paintings lined every wall.  Persian rugs lined every spare inch of floor.  Sculptures stood in every room.  It could have been the world's biggest art museum.

   Isaac led us through a series of hallways that sported so much gold, marble and masterful artwork it was enough to make your eyes ache.  Finally, we arrived at a set of mahogany doors.

            "Wait here for just a minute, all right?" Isaac whispered before slipping through the doors and into the room beyond.  Though his voice was muffled by the heavy wood doors, we could still hear him say, "Sir, we have visitors.  Would you like me to send them in?"

            "What?  What?" a second voice blearily demanded.  "Visitors?"  The voice took on a pouty tone.  "Send them away.  I was taking my nap."

            "But sir—"

            "No, no, no!  I will not have it!  Send them away!"

            "They've come from—"

            "I can't hear you.  I'm sleeping."

   There was an exasperated sigh and Isaac poked his head out of the doors.  "I'm sorry," he apologized.  "The Master won't see any visitors for the time being.  If you want to wait a few hours and—urk!"

   Isaac was cut short as Jezebel shoved him out of her way and squeezed her way into the room.  The rest of us quietly followed suit (though Yuugi paused to help Isaac to his feet and apologize for Jezebel) and received yet another surprise to add to the ever-growing list.

   Sitting in a throne that could just as easily be mistaken for an easy chair was yet another familiar figure.  He was tall; taller than any of us by several inches, and pale.  His sleek, white hair hung around his shoulders and shined even in the scantly lit room.  Aside from the conspicuously absent Millennium Eye, Casper could have easily been Pegasus J. Crawford's identical twin.

   Now it was Kaiba's turn to give a new acquaintance a murderous glare.  He was quivering with barely-suppressed rage at the sight of somebody who so closely resembled his former adversary.  Yuugi looked completely shell shocked and Jounouchi was quietly repeating under his breath, "Must…not…kill…."

   It was Casper who first broke the spell by nervously shifting in his seat and stammering, "J—Jezebel!  What…what a pleasant surprise!  How have you b-been as of late?"

   Jezebel narrowed her eyes and answered, "I would be doing very well if you would pay me for the last job you hired me for."

            "Oh, yes…heh…that.  I was certain I'd sent your pay to you with that last cargo ship.  I'm ever so sorry."

            "Well, lucky for you, that's not what I came here for."

   Casper cringed and timidly questioned, "It's not?"

   Jezebel smiled sweetly and replied in a syrupy tone, "Oh, no.  I'm only here to pick up a certain _illegal _laptop, that's all."

            "A l-l-laptop?" Casper squeaked.  "W-whatever gave you the idea I had one of those?"

            "Dante told us you would have one," Yuugi piped up.

            "That little slanderer!  I have nothing of the sort!  You…you could search this whole castle and never find a laptop!  Never!"

   Kaiba sighed and said, "You obviously have something to hide if you're reacting like this."

            "I do _not, _you…you stupid mutant!"  I would swear that he puckered his lip like a five year old after that last remark.

            "If you'd just tell us where you're keepin' the damn thing we'd be out of here in a jiffy," Jounouchi tried.

   I licked my lips and added, "We won't turn you in…if you'll let us have the laptop, that is."

            "But…I…argh!  Isaac, go fetch the item these wretches seek," Casper finally relented.  He watched as Isaac hurried out of the room and smirked, "Although I don't know what you think you're going to do with that useless piece of junk—it won't do anything without a robot to help run it."

   Everybody turned their eyes onto Jounouchi.

~Mai's POV~

   I picked at the government-regulation meal for a good five minutes before pushing the plastic try aside with a sigh.  _Tasteless macaroni and cheese isn't all that appetizing right now, _I thought.  _And **congealed** tasteless macaroni and cheese is just disgusting._

My fingers went to my neck and I lightly traced the blotchy, purple bruises there.  _Who _was _that man, _I wondered to myself.  _Was he the one who did all those awful things to Kaiba and Ryou and Yuugi and…and Jounouchi?_

   I shuddered as I recalled the tubes and machines and wires that had surrounded my friends in those hospital rooms.  _It's not fair, _I thought.  _What did they ever do to deserve any of that?  I hope whoever did this to them gets what they've got coming to them._

   An unbearable dryness began to settle in my mouth and I swallowed, trying to ignore it.  _God, I needed a drink.  _My hands twitched and began to sweat.  _That bottle of wine is starting to look pretty nice, isn't it?_

   I reached for the smoke-black bottle, but paused, my hand halfway there.  _No, _I thought.  _I don't know where it came from.  _But surely one little sip couldn't hurt anything?  _No!_

   The bottle had appeared when I'd been in the bathroom a couple of hours ago.  None of the officers could have brought it to me—they were all so strict about adhering to the rules and restrictions that they would never bring me wine.  Besides that, they were so loud coming in and out of my room there was no possible way I could have missed them.  The wine was _not there _when I'd walked into my tiny bathroom.  It had simply appeared in the two minutes I'd been in there.  How or why were a mystery to me, but whatever the reason, it couldn't be good.

   My chair made a loud screech as I pushed it back and got to my feet.  The bottle silently sat in its place at the end of the table.  I quickly tore my eyes away from it and even considered throwing it in the trash to remove even the slightest temptation to open it.  _I'm like Pandora, _I thought, still able to sense the bottle on the table behind me.  Yeah, that's right.  Don't open the bottle, Mai.  All the monsters will pop out and get you.

   I chuckled at the thought and tried to ignore the terrible parched feeling as it crept to the back of my throat.  _Pandora.  _I tightly folded my hands as though I were praying.  _Bottle.  I jiggled my foot.  _Monsters.__

            "All right, time to stop being silly about this," I muttered, turning back to the bottle, still resting innocently enough at the far end of the table.  "You want a drink, so have a drink. You're a big girl.  You can handle it."

   That much decided, I reached for the bottle for the second time in as many minutes…and froze with my hand on the neck.  _Someone's outside my door._  "Stop it," I whispered.  "Don't start getting paranoid."  _They're watching me._  "No."

   _They're coming to get you, Mai.  They're coming.  _He's _coming.  Coming to take you away.  _I shivered and grabbed the bottle so tight my knuckles went white.  _Coming to get you._

"I'm coming to get you, bitch."

   That voice, that deep, gravelly voice.  I knew that voice.  I would never forget that horrible voice.  It was the man with the golden eye.  The man who wanted me dead.  He was here—never mind _how_ he was here_—_just outside my door.

   I wanted to curl up into a little ball and cry.  I was weak with fear, sick with it.  But somehow, my panic-fogged brain managed to form a plan.  A feeble excuse of a plan it was, but under the circumstances, it was the best I could come up with.  Silently, I crossed the room, wine bottle in hand to stand to the right of the door.

            "You're gonna die, you goddamned bitch.  Hear me?  I'm gonna kill ya."

   I shivered, but I held my ground as the lock on my door began to click.  I could hear the tumblers sliding into place as he worked.  _He'll be in any second._

   The wine bottle was heavier than I'd expected it to be, but I tightened my grip on its neck as I silently waited for the door to swing open.

   There was a loud scraping noise as the last tumbler fell into place and the man let out a grunt of triumph.  I held my breath.  _Here he comes…._

   The door was thrown open hard and it smashed into my free arm and head.  I gasped with pain, but bit my tongue, not about to cry out and give away my hiding place.  A set of heavy footsteps barreled through the door and I pulled together every last scrap of courage I had left to burst out of my hiding place and swing the wine bottle as hard as I could.

   My aim was dead on.  I'd expected the bottle to shatter when it hit his head.  After all, that's what always seems to happen on TV.  However, there was only a dull _thud_ as it smashed into his face.  The man; that huge, strong man that had the power to kill me crashed to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut and stayed down.

   I darted out the door and slammed it shut.  I heard the automatic lock whir back into place as I tore down the long, empty hall, but felt absolutely no comfort from the sound.  _He'll be out of there soon enough._

   I couldn't go home, I couldn't stay at the police station—but I knew exactly where I needed to go.  I'd noticed something about that golden eye that the man wore, something so painfully obvious I couldn't believe I'd missed it earlier.

   _That eye is on that pyramid necklace that Yuugi Mutou's always got around his neck, _I thought as I raced out of the police station and onto the bustling streets of Domino City.  _There's got to be some sort of connection.  I have to find Anzu Mazaki…._

**Author's Notes: **Jackknife 20 is back!  I'm not dead!  And before you start throwing rotten fruit at me for not updating for…erm…four months, please allow me to offer a short explanation:

school + sports + music + SAT + college applications + an ungodly amount of homework = one very tired, very stressed, very **uncreative **Katkid

   Now then, sorry about the (ridiculously long) delay.  I will be updating this story a bit more often from now on (I hope).

   Special thank you's go out to Ouvalyrin, Cherii (twice!), Dragon's Venom, Ryou Bakura Obsessor, Rishai Bakura, AmunRa, ArmaGirl, MercilessTantalus, and restlesspirit for all your reviews and encouragement!  You guys are absolutely wonderful!


	10. Chapter 9: Cybertronics

*CHAPTER 9*

~Jounouchi's POV~

            I love action movies.  _Terminator.  Jurassic Park.  Star Wars.  The Matrix.  _You know, blood and guts, good guys kicking ass, bad guys _being _asses.  Where the world is all high-speed car chases, adrenaline-packed shootouts and stunts so wild they're enough to make your eyes bug out.  Of course, sitting there in the theater watching actors and stuntmen playing out one of those slick, cool stories is something completely different from actually living one yourself.

            First off, there isn't any popcorn.  In fact, there isn't any nifty little concession stand at all.  But I suppose I shouldn't complain about that.  After all, it would be pretty hard to enjoy a king-size Reese's Pieces and jumbo Coke while you're busy being scared shitless.

            Yes, there isn't any popcorn or candy or pop.  There isn't any air conditioning, or comfy seats, or ticket stubs to tear into little bitty pieces and leave on the floor for the janitor to sweep up.  Which is why I wished more than anything else that I was sitting in the theater, watching those actors and stuntmen acting out our little adventure rather than being a part of it myself.

            We were a mere five miles away from the Ruler's castle; as close as we could get without triggering a bazillion alarms and getting ourselves shot before we could blink.  Kaiba had been clicking away at the laptop Casper had given to us for over an hour (_How can he type with those claws? _I wondered), and from what I could tell, he had only managed to make the screen flicker a couple of times.  He was also starting to look very pissed off.  Or confused (although when Kaiba gets confused, he generally gets pissed off, too, so it may have been a combination of both).  It wasn't the greatest time for Yug to say, "Hey, Kaiba, make any progress yet?"

   Kaiba mumbled something under his breath that sounded a lot like _"piece of shit system" _before answering, "No, Yuugi.  Let me concentrate."  I felt like hauling off and decking that asshole.  He sounded like he was talking to an annoying two year old; short and condescending.

            "You know, maybe we should take what Casper said into consideration," Ryou suggested from his corner of the camp.  "He _did _say it wouldn't do anything without a robot to help run it, and we _do _have a robot."

   Jezebel sighed, exasperated, and replied, "I doubt that fop knows anything more about computers than I do.  But hey, anything's worth a shot, I guess."

            "What do you think _I'm _gonna do?" I blurted at the exact moment Kaiba snapped, "I can handle this myself!"

            "It can't hurt anything to try, can it?" Ryou pushed as he coiled the black extension cord that had come with the laptop into knots.  "I mean, maybe it really won't work unless we try this."

   There was a pause as each of us digested that last bit, and then Kaiba wordlessly ripped the cord out of Ryou's hands, shook the kinks out of it and snapped one of the ends into the laptop.  "All right, mutt, get over here," he ordered, holding the other end of the cord at the ready.

   I did what any sane person would have done under the circumstances.  I balked.  "Eh heh," I nervously tittered.  "Where exactly is dat thingsupposed to go?"

   Jezebel rolled her eyes and brushed back the hair behind my right ear before grabbing my hand and guiding it to a small, round hole.

            "Oh," I said.  "OK."  What else _is_ there to say when you find out you've got a hole in your head that you never knew anything about?

   _Of course dere had ta be a damn hole in my head, _I thought as I walked over to Kaiba.  _Makes perfect sense._

   Kaiba furiously shoved my hair out of the way and I braced myself (for what?) as he brought the cord up to the hole in my head.

            "Wait a minute," Yug shouted and Kaiba paused, the cord millimeters away from my head.  "Jou, are you sure you want to do this?"

   I put on what I hoped was a convincingly nonchalant smile answered, "Yeah, Yug.  'Course I do."  _No I don't; I'm about ready to piss my pants.  Quit tryin' to give me an out._

"But what if something goes wrong?"

   _Damn.  _"What's there to go wrong?" I brightly inquired.  _Electrocution, brain damage, pain in general…oh yeah, let's not forget death while we're at it…._  "Go ahead." I encouraged.

   I felt the cord slide into the hole and dully heard it click into place.  I had time to give a shaky smile and say, "Well, dat wasn't too bad" before I was flying through the air at a billion miles an hour.

   The trees, the sky, the dirt path we'd been sitting on, the tall grass that pressed on either side of the trail disappeared in a confused jumble of green, brown and blue.  The whole world turned into a sickening blur of psychedelic colors and my stomach danced an Irish jig.  I tried to close my eyes, but the wind held them open.  I tried to scream but the sound got stuck in my throat.  I couldn't hear, I couldn't _breathe_, for crying out loud.

   Then, _BAM!  _As suddenly as it had started, it stopped.  I landed sprawled on my back on a cold, hard surface, panting and shivering and wondering what in the hell had just happened.

   From far away, I heard Yug screaming, _"Jou!  Jou!"_  A remote echo in my head.

            "Yug?" I questioned, painfully climbing to my feet.

            _"Jou!  What happened?  Are you all right?"  _Yug again, but distant, a weird buzzing in my brain.

            "Yeah.  I…I think so."  I glanced around, searching for any sign of my friends and saw nothing but an endless expanse of emptiness.  _Figures, _I bitterly thought.  "Where am I?" I inquired.

            _"I uploaded you into the computer."  _Kaiba this time.

   _Wow, thanks a lot.  That made everything crystal clear, _I thought.  "So…uh…now what am I supposed to do?"

            _"Wait.  I'll access the Ruler's system."_

   Another nauseating kaleidoscope of movement and colors, and I was surrounded by miles and miles of…file cabinets.  Yes, you heard right.  Ordinary, everyday file cabinets; each two drawers high and a metallic brown-white color.  I had just registered this fact when I was sent flying down an aisle of cabinets at breakneck speed.

   I squinted trying to read the labels on the drawers as I hurtled past, but immediately gave it up as my guts twisted in rebellion.  

   _Damn, I dunno how much more o' dis I can take, _I thought.  And then I came to a screeching halt that was so sudden it left me staggering to keep from falling over on top of the cabinet I'd stopped in front of.

            _"I found the security files," _announced Kaiba's voice.  _"That was almost too easy."_

   I stooped down to read what was written on the label that was attached to the drawer in front of me.  _Defense/Security, _announced the white card.  _Huh, _I thought as I flipped the drawer open.  _This _does _seem a little too easy.  Oh well…._

   I closed my eyes and picked a random file out of the drawer.  It was thick and heavy in my hands, filled with pages and pages of computer code that looked like nothing but a bunch of spontaneous ones and zeros.  I turned the folder over in my hands and scanned the official-looking cover sheet attached to the front.  _Well, this is nice, _I thought.  _Seein' as I don't have a friggn' clue what I'm supposed to do next.  Guess I'll just have ta try dis…._

   The stack of papers in my hand made a satisfying ripping noise as I tore them apart.  I tossed the ruined file away, and watched the jagged bits of paper flutter to the ground like confetti.  I took the next folder and ripped it apart with gusto, relishing the sound of splitting paper.  A small mountain of paper now littered the floor around the cabinet, and I plunged on to the next file, and the next, and the next, until I'd effectively demolished every single folder in the drawer.

            "OK, guys, I'm done," I announced, surveying my handiwork.  "Get me outta here."

   Pause.  Wait for wild clash of colors.  Nothing.

            "Uh…guys?"  No answer.  "Hey, guys?"  Nothing.  "Hey!"  Zilch.  "Hello!"

            "What have you done?"

   I gasped.  I knew that voice; it was the most important voice in the world to me, the last voice I'd ever expected to hear in this God-awful place.  I whipped around, hardly daring to let myself hope that it was…that it could be…_her._

            "Shizuka?"

   _POW!  _My jaws snapped together and my head jerked back as the muscles in my neck screamed.  _Uppercut, _my agony-fogged mind managed to realize.

   Before I had time to recover, something jabbed me hard in the stomach and I reeled back against the cabinet, sucking air and trying not to be sick.  A small set of hands dug into my shoulders, raising me up and then smashing my head against the cabinet.  I saw butterflies of light as my vision fought to overcome the shock.  _(Gee, what pretty colors, _I hazily thought.) 

            "Hey," I managed to wheeze as I prized the hands loose.  "What're you—"

            "You've been a naughty boy," the voice broke in.  _(Her _voice!  It was _hers!_  I knew it!)"Naughty boys must be punished."

   There was a flash of movement at the edge of my vision and I twisted out of the way just in time to avoid the punch.  A small, bony fist smashed into the unyielding file cabinet with a resonating _thud_, accompanied by a shriek of pain.

   I backed a few yards away and was finally able to get a glimpse of my opponent.  It _was _her.  The same face, the same features, same hair, eyes, nose, mouth…Shizuka, my baby sister.

   She recovered herself and charged me, and I knew that I couldn't fight back.  I couldn't hurt my little sister; I couldn't do it, no way in hell.  I ran.

            "Get me outta here, guys!" I yelled as I weaved my way through the aisles of cabinets.

            _"Jou—chi…can't…where…go?"_

            "Hurry up!" I shouted back.

   A scream from behind and suddenly I was on the floor, struggling to get back to my feet without hurting "Shizuka" as she clawed at my neck and jammed her fist into my ribs.

            _"What…Jou—…hap—"_

   I pushed her off my back and ran, but she was so fast, so, so fast that I could never get away, no matter how hard I ran.  I heard a faint buzzing noise behind me.

            "Come on, guys!  Help—arrrgh!" I screamed as something white-hot slammed into the back of my head.  An excruciating pain flared from my temples and engulfed my head.  It was an ice cream headache times a thousand, a million, a billion.  My senses rebelled and shut down as I dropped to the floor, writhing in agony.

   My eyes leaked rivers of tears, my ears throbbed, my nose streamed, my tongue was molten lead in my mouth…I remember vaguely wondering if my head had been split in half as the fireworks behind my eyes exploded blindingly.

   There was a whistling and I felt as though I was spinning out of control through space.  But then I realized that no, I wasn't moving at all. I was lying on something soft; something covered with starchy, sterile sheets.  _A bed?_

   I blinked furiously, willing my eyes to focus.  Everything was white.  The air was heavy with the stench of antiseptic.  A dull, muted pain prickled over my face, my neck, my arms and my chest.  My throat was rough and raw, and something was in my mouth.  I instinctively bit and almost choked on whatever it was.  _A tube…where am I?_

            "Katsuya!  Oh my God, you woke up!"  Shizuka.  The _real _Shizuka.

   _Am I…I'm in a hospital?_

~Anzu's POV~

   It was late.  I was tired.  Tired of newspapers, tired of doctors and nurses, tired of phone calls…just tired.  I felt like a wrung-out sponge, empty, with nothing left to deal with being strong, solving mysteries or explosions in the middle of the night.  I just wanted to sleep.

   I'd been home alone for hours, watching TV through tear-fogged eyes.  I ached; a dull throb in my heart as I watched the sitcoms and reality shows.  It was a wearying ache that spread to my bones and my mind, and I drifted off to sleep somewhere between _Friends _and _That 70's Show.  _

   The knock on the door surprised me.  I jumped; fell off the couch to land on the floor in a tangle of arms and legs before skidding down the hall and to the front door.  I composed myself, patting down my hair and swiping at my (red, puffy) eyes before checking the peephole and throwing the door open.

            "Mai!" I exclaimed, a thousand questions running through my head at the sight of my visitor.  "Are…are you all right?  What are you doing here?"  I had to bite my tongue to stop the river of questions that wanted to pour out of me.

            "Anzu," she half-whispered.  "Can I come in?"

            "Yes, of course.  What's going on?  Are you all right?"  I scrambled out of her way and tried to ignore the ring of purple-blue bruises around her throat as she stepped inside.

            "Do you want to sit down?" I inquired.

            "That would be nice."

   I guided her to the overstuffed recliner and questioned, "Are you hungry?  Do you want anything to drink?"

   She held up her hand and quietly answered, "I just want to talk."

            "All right."

            "Look, Anzu, I…." she trailed and rubbed her eyes.  "God, this is going to sound so stupid.  There was a man who broke into my house."

   I nodded.  I'd read all about that in the paper.  But I didn't interrupt.

            "He…he tried to kill me, so I…I went to the police."

   Again, I nodded.  I knew that, too.

            "I thought they could keep me safe.  I mean, they're the police for Christ's sake!"  She attempted a feeble laugh.  "But he came back."

   I raised my eyebrows.  This was news; _bad _news.

            "He came back, and he still wants me dead.  But, Anzu, I noticed something weird about him."  She stopped there and focused on the Monet print hanging on the wall behind me, perhaps deciding not to talk about it after all.

            "What?  What was it?"  Silence.  "Mai, what's going on?  Why did you come here?"

            "He…you know that necklace that Yuugi always wears around his neck?  The pyramid with the eye on it?"

   I furrowed my brow.  _What does that have to do with anything? _I wondered.  Still, I nodded yes; I knew what she was talking about.

            "That man…one of his eyes…it was the same as the eye on that pyramid, Anzu."

   My eyebrows must have disappeared into my bangs.  "What?"

            "The man had an eye in his head that looks exactly like the one on Yuugi's pyramid necklace.  I mean, it was a real eye in his socket.  Is there…I mean, do you think there might be…maybe…some kind of connection?"

   I nodded.  Of course there was a connection.  There _had _to be!  But where?  How?  I was about free the flood of questions I'd kept dammed up inside, but before I could say a word, the phone rang.

            "Sorry," I apologized.  "I'll be back in a minute."  I sprinted to the phone and snatched it off the hook.  "Hello?"

            "You bitch!  You little dumbass bitch!  I told you to stay the hell away from Mai Kujaku.  You're in deep shit now, bitch.  You're in deep _shit!_  Do you hear me, you—"

   _Clang!  _I slammed the phone back onto the cradle, hand shaking.

            "Who was it?" Mai inquired from the other room.

            "A…a telemarketer," I stammered, hand still on the phone.  And then it rang again, garishly loud in the otherwise quiet house.  _Leave me alone! _I silently pleaded to the psycho on the other line.

   It rang six times…seven…eight….  Mai got out of her seat.

            "You going to get that?"

   Twelve…thirteen….  She was beside me.

            "Anzu?"

   Eighteen….

            "All right.  Fine.  I'll get it, then."

            "No!"

   She wrestled the phone out of my hands and I swiped at it one last time, in a desperate attempt to save her from having to confront that awful voice on the other line.  I missed.

            "Hello?"  Pause.  "Just a minute."  She covered the mouthpiece and whispered.  "It's for you.  Are you here right now?"  I shook my head and she shrugged before replying, "Sorry, Shizuka, she can't come to the phone right now."

   _Shizuka? _I thought.  _What?  What's going on?_

            "Oh, I'm all right."  Pause.  "Really?  _Really?  _Oh my…Shizuka, that's great!  You must be so happy!"  Pause.  "Of course we will.  Thanks for calling, honey.  I'll be sure to tell her."  Pause.  "Mm-hmm.  OK.  Bye-bye."

   Mai carefully replaced the receiver on the cradle.  Her eyes were shining; her face was glowing, delight radiating from every pore.

            "What's going on?" I inquired.

            "That was Shizuka," she replied.  "Anzu, Jounouchi woke up!"

**Author's Notes: **I apologize for the crappiness of this chapter.  Most of this was done at 2:00 am and edited five hours of sleep later.  But at least I got this one out a little sooner than the last one!  

  Thanks goes to Sunrise and Sunset, heatherthegreatone, Reana 1 (You read the whole thing and reviewed every chapter! 0_0 wow!), Rikki-the-Fox, AmunRa, restlesspirit, Alta-Lemur and Tuulikki.  Whew, I think that's everyone.  Thank you all for reviewing!

   Oh, and heatherthegreatone, about your questions:

   1) Jou's wounds do stick themselves back together eventually.

   2) Hmmmm…I'd kind of been hoping nobody would ask about Seto's pants….  I suppose he would have to be wearing some sort of sacrificial garment, since he woke up in the middle of one of those ceremonies.

   Hope that clears everything up!


	11. Chapter 10: Time Warp Shuffle

*CHAPTER 10*

~Honda's POV~

   Shizuka burst out of the hospital room, bubbling over with laughter.  She threw her arms around my shoulders and I melted.  God, she was beautiful.  Her hair glistened even in the cold, stark light of the hospital's halls.  Her eyes shone with happy tears and her full, oh-so-tempting lips were drawn back in a smile.

   I hugged back and marveled at the warmth of her body against mine, the steady rhythm of her heart, the sweetness of her breath.  I wanted to hold her closer, tighter, to explore what I knew was forbidden.  I never wanted to let her go.

            "I'm so glad you could all come!" she exclaimed, sliding away from my embrace and throwing her arms around first Anzu and then Mai as well.  "Katsuya was asking about you guys all night.  The night nurse threatened to put him on sedatives if he couldn't keep quiet!"

            "Well, that certainly sounds like the Jounouchi we all know and love," Anzu heartily replied.

            "How is he doing now?" Mai inquired.

   Shizuka wrinkled her nose and answered, "He's kind of floaty from all the painkillers they've been giving him.  Oh, why am I sitting here talking about it when you can see for yourself?  Come on!"  She motioned for us to follow her into the room she had just left.

   _Christ, what the hell am I supposed to say once we're in there? _I wondered to myself._  'I'm glad you're awake?'  How lame does that sound?  'You scared the shit out of all of us?'  Yeah, that's great._  I stepped inside.

   Jounouchi was awake—that was an improvement.  He was alert—major improvement.  He didn't have that tube down his throat anymore—definitely a plus.  But he looked vulnerable in that hospital bed.  Not _weak, _mind you…but vulnerable.

   The oxygen mask that covered his mouth and nose seemed to hide most of his face.  He looked small and fragile beside the IV's and other hospital equipment that surrounded the bed.  His eyes were red and bloodshot and his hair was still dark with soot.  But he was awake now, goddamn it, and that was all that mattered.

            "Hey," I said, and cringed inwardly at the way-too-enthusiastic tone.  "You look good, man."

            "You don't have ta lie," he croaked.  I visibly winced.  His throat must have hurt like a bitch for his voice to be that sandpapery.

            "How do you feel?" Anzu queried.

            "I got heat blisters on my damn eyelids," he rasped back.  "How do ya think I feel?"

   I saw Shizuka bite her lip, distressed.  This wasn't how she'd planned for the visit to go.

            "We were so worried about you Jounouchi," Mai whispered.  She paused to take a deep breath and a shadow of uncertainty flashed across her eyes before she added, "_I _was worried about you."

   Jounouchi blinked, surprised and said, "Jezebel?  You're here, too?"

   Mai's eyes went wide and then narrowed, confused.  "Jezebel?" she repeated.  "Who's Jezebel?"

            "She's…forget it.  Sorry, Mai."

            "That's all right.  No big deal."  She smiled, but even I could tell she'd been hurt.

   There was an ugly silence for a long time after that.  Finally, Jounouchi grated, "What happened ta everyone else?"

            "Huh?" Anzu ever so helpfully answered.

            "Yug 'n Ryou 'n Kaiba," he replied.  "Damn nurses won't tell me anythin'."

            "None of them have woken up yet," I quickly replied.

   He gave me an exasperated look and said, "I already know that.  What happened to 'em?"

            "Katsuya—" Shizuka started.

            "I gotta know, sis," he interrupted.

   Anzu and Mai exchanged uncertain looks and I nervously shifted from one foot to the other.  _What're we supposed to tell him? _I wondered.  _Are we even supposed to talk about that stuff with him right now?_

            "C'mon, I really wanna know about it," he prodded.

            "They think Ryou hit his head pretty bad," Anzu quietly stated.  "He might have a concussion or…I don't know."

   We all knew what she meant by 'I don't know'.  _Brain damage, _I silently added.

            "What about Yug 'n Kaiba?"  He paused waiting for a response before repeating, "Guys?  What about them?"

            "Kaiba got burned all over his back.  Third-degree," I tonelessly related.  "They won't let us see him; he's still in the ICU, I think.  And Yuugi—" I trailed off.  _How in the hell am I going to say this?_

            "What?  Tell me, Honda."

            "They wouldn't let us see him, either.  He's hanging on, though; he's fighting."_  Could I possibly have made that sound any shittier? _I wondered.

   Jounouchi closed his eyes and sighed.  "Damn," he whispered, and shivered.  "Thanks, man," he added.

            "Yeah," I muttered.  _As if he doesn't have enough to worry about as it is, _I furiously thought.  _Whoever did this is going to pay.  I'll mount their goddamn head on a wall._

   The rest of the visit was so damned subdued it hurt.  We talked about piddly little things that really didn't matter, like the chemistry lab he'd missed and who was picked last in gym class.  Jounouchi just listened and nodded every so often, but didn't he say another word.  Not one single word.

   We didn't mention Yuugi, Ryou or Kaiba again.  We didn't mention Hill House.  We didn't mention the phone calls Anzu had gotten or the man who was stalking Mai.  By the time we walked out of that white (why the hell is it always white?) room, everybody looked tired and worn down.  But we weren't done yet.  Oh, no.  We had plenty left to do before we could leave the hospital.

   _How in the hell are we going to explain about Yami to Mai? _I wondered.

~Seto's POV~

   I still wonder precisely what went wrong.  I have a feeling it was because we trusted that inept moron Jounouchi to handle a task that involved technical knowledge (simple though it may have been).  It certainly was not my doing—computer hacking is child's play for me and this system was especially easy to breach.  No, Jounouchi was most definitely the one to blame.

   "It", in case you are wondering, was the apparent death of Jounouchi.  I say apparent because (1) I highly doubt that a robot can be classified as "dead" and (2) I'm not entirely sure what was done to him.

   Jounouchi had just finished destroying the Ruler's defensive system (or so he claimed) when his body began to convulse.  I logged out of the Ruler's system in less than two seconds (an admirable feat when you consider the fact that Yuugi was screaming in my ear to hurry and completely ruining what little concentration I had).  Jounouchi's body went still and a thin curl of acrid smoke wafted out of his left ear.  And all hell broke loose.

            "Jounouchi!  Oh my God!  Jou!" Yuugi screeched, dropping to the ground beside the mutt that some people like to refer to as "Jounouchi".

   Ryou went a very odd shade of white and fell to his knees shaking and never taking his eyes away from the scene.  Jezebel laughed like a maniac.  And I quietly sat there, by far the most composed of the group.

   The first person to utter a coherent phrase, surprisingly enough, was Ryou.  "Kaiba," he quietly said.  "Do you think you could fix him?"

   I blinked, surprised.  "Excuse me?" I replied, incredulous.

            "He's a machine," Ryou elaborated.  "You're good with machines.  So do you think you could fix him?"

   Jezebel abruptly stopped laughing and stated, "If we're going to be breaking in to the Ruler's fortress, now would be the time to do it.  His defenses aren't going to be down forever, you know.  Why waste this opportunity on the worthless robot boy?"

            "No!" Yuugi wailed, voice tight with grief.

            "Look, do you want the Ruler assassinated or don't you?" Jezebel irritably demanded.

            "I'm the one who hired you, so you've got to do what I say.  And I say we don't go anywhere until Jou's back to normal."

   I raised an eyebrow and regarded Yuugi with a mix of anger and admiration.  _He's throwing away our chances at getting back to 2004.  _Anger.  _Yuugi's showing a little authority for a change.  _Admiration.

            "Do something to help him, Kaiba," Yuugi whimpered.  "Please."

   _And what exactly do you expect me to do, Yuugi?  _I mused to myself.  _I know nothing about the way he was made.  Who's to say I won't further the damage?_  But I scanned the mutt's lifeless face with a critical eye, mildly curious as to what technology had been utilized to create such an advanced robot.

   Wordlessly, I pulled the plug out of the port that was located behind Jounouchi's right ear.  I examined the area around the port as thoroughly as I could, searching for screws, flaps or any abnormality that would allow me access to the inner workings of the robot and saw none.  I ran my fingers along the area, feeling for lumps, bumps or cracks and felt nothing but what felt like smooth, unbroken flesh.

   _How am I going to do this? _I wondered to myself…and then my eyes came to rest on my claws.  _Perhaps these claws will prove useful after all…._ I thought, an idea beginning to form in the back of my mind.

   I brought the tip of my index claw to rest just below the port behind Jounouchi's ear and paused.  A sudden wave of nausea swept over me at the prospect of what I was about to do, but I ignored it and willed my hand to stay steady.  And then I pressed until I felt my claw pierce his flesh.

            "What are you doing?" Yuugi shouted as I continued to cut Jounouchi's flesh along his jaw line.  "Stop it!  You'll hurt him!"

            "Somebody shut him up!" I snapped, a bead of sweat tracing down my temple.  Yuugi whimpered and began to weep quietly.

            "Kaiba, what are you—"

            "Quiet!" I interrupted Ryou as I reached Jounouchi's chin.  "I need to concentrate."

   When I had made a large enough cut, I peeled back the flap of flesh and was relieved to see cold, familiar metal.  This was what I knew.  This was what I could work with.

   I found a small screw just below the port, right where I had expected it to be.  Unscrewing it was a simple operation (my claws once again came in quite handy in that maneuver) and I was soon sorting through a complex network of wires and switchboards.

   At first I'd been worried that I would never be able to identify what had been damaged, that all my efforts (while informative) were ultimately in vain.  But I was surprised to discover that apparently, only one small part had been damaged.  More surprising still, it was a part common to most computers.

   _This is going to be too easy, _I thought as I shut off the laptop computer.

            "Hold on there, Sherlock," Jezebel stated as I prepared to strip the computer's parts.  "What do you think you're doing with that?"

   I sighed in exasperation.  "I'm getting a part that I need to fix the mutt," I slowly explained.

            "No, you're not!  No way are you taking that thing apart!  Not after what we went through to get it.  Besides, we might need it later!  How can you—"

            "Let him do it, Jezebel," Yuugi firmly ordered through his tears and Jezebel snarled with frustration.

   It was no difficult task to find the part that I needed.  It was a bit more of a challenge replacing the damaged part with the new one from the laptop, but in the end, I managed it without a hitch.  I returned the screw back to its place and folded the flap of flesh back to its original position.

   For a moment, I contemplated how I was going to close the cut, but out of pure instinct I decided to try pinching it closed and was delighted to find that the flesh stuck itself back together quite readily.  And then Jounouchi looked just as he did before I'd started.  The entire operation had taken no more than ten minutes.

   I surveyed my handiwork proudly.  _Not bad, _I congratulated myself.  _Not bad at all._

            "It didn't work," Yuugi miserably whispered.

            "Well, what did you expect?" Jezebel muttered.

   I turned on her and demanded, "Who asked your opinion?"

            "Oh, honestly.  'Do you think you could fix him?'  What a silly idea!"

            "It was worth a try, Jezebel!" Ryou argued.

            "Yeah?  Well you know what?  Now we don't have a damned laptop.  Which means if we don't get into the Ruler's fortress _right now, _that's it.  We're done.  Finito.  No more.  All of that on some stupid, wasted attempt to—"

   At that exact moment, Jounouchi's eyes fluttered and he groaned.  He shakily brought a hand to his temple before slowly opening his eyes.  And do you know what that ungrateful little Chihuahua's first words were?  No, not "Gee thanks, Kaiba, for bringing me back to life."  Not "Oh, thanks.  I owe you."  Not even a measly "What happened?"

   Oh, no.  His first words were, "Why did you bring me back?"

   There's no such thing as gratitude these days.

~Yami's POV~

   I had left my agonizing vigil over my suffering charge for one undeserved moment.  I could no longer bear the sight of his pain or the steady beeping of the foreign equipment that surrounded him.

   Those horrible machines.  They hurt him.  They prolonged his suffering.  But they kept him alive.  How long they would keep him that way, I did not know.  I did not understand their beeping, their whirring and their dripping.  I did not understand what they were doing.  I understood only that as long as they continued to beep, continued to whir and continued to drip my aibou would continue to live.

   I kept to the darkest corners of the most abandoned corridors of the hospital.  Unlike the Tomb Robber, I had no desire to terrorize innocent mortals.  I was therefore understandably surprised when a voice shouted, "Yami!  Hey, Yami!"

   _Who's there? _I wondered.  I recovered from my surprise and recognized the voice.  "Anzu," I stated, turning to face the mortal who had called to me.

   There was a sharp gasp and a second voice exclaimed, "He…he looks like Yuugi!"

   I caught sight of a mane of blonde hair and instantly recognized the second speaker.  _Mai Kujaku._  I hastily focused on making my form appear to be more solid and fervently hoped she would not notice my very transparent legs.

            "Yeah…he's Yuugi's cousin," a third voice hurriedly explained.  _Honda, _I thought.

            "Really?  They look so much alike…it's as though they're twins," Mai replied.

            "No; I am his cousin," I answered, deciding to go along with whatever it was Anzu and Honda had planned.

            "Hey, Mai, why don't you tell Yami about…you know," Anzu prompted.

            "I…why would he want to hear about—"

   Anzu cut her off and prodded, "Don't you think Yuugi's cousin would want to know about _that?"_

   I furrowed my brow and gave Anzu an interested albeit confused look before adding, "What is it?  Is it something that has to do with Yuugi?"

   Mai went red in the face and said, "Well…I…I was…."  She trailed, embarrassed and ashamed.  "I was supposed to be there," she whispered.  "At Hill House.  I'm sorry."

            "What about after that, Mai?" Honda pushed.

   I gave him a questioning look as Mai growled, "Honda, I'm not going to talk about it with his family!  That would be so disrespectful!"

            "It's all right.  Please, tell me," I encouraged.  _What in the world is this? _I wondered.

            "Well, after the…accident…" she paused and I nodded, prompting her to go on.  "This man started…he started coming after me.  I noticed something strange about him, though, Yami.  He had a gold eye.  I mean a real, gold eye in his head.  It looks like the eye on that pyramid necklace that Yuugi always wears."  She paused again and inquired, "Yami, are you all right?"

   I realized that my mouth had dropped open in shock.  "Yes.  Yes, I'm fine," I responded.  _The source! _I thought.  _It must be!  But why?  Why would he go after Mai Kujaku?  _A chill went through my being as another thought came to me: _What if it was the source that hurt my aibou and his friends?_

            "Pretty weird, huh, Yami?" Honda inquired.

            "Yes.  Very strange," I dazedly replied.  _I must tell the Tomb Robber of this! _I thought.  _This imbalance affects us even more directly than we'd first thought!_

            "Do you think there might be a connection?" Anzu queried.

   I nodded.  My mind was racing at a mile a minute.  _Why would the source want to harm Yuugi?  Or Jounouchi, Ryou or Kaiba?  This has only made this mystery even more confusing._

   Before another question could be asked, a gaggle of doctors raced down the hall, pushing a patient on a wheeled bed and shouting amongst themselves in medical jargon that was so complicated it may as well have been a foreign language.  Behind them came a small girl with light brown hair, wailing over and over, _"Katsuya!  Katsuya!"_  She was sobbing and her face was buried in her hands, but I recognized her.  _Shizuka._

   I whipped my attention back to the doctors in time to see them disappear around a corner at a sprint, bed in tow.

            "Shizuka!" Honda cried, seizing her arm as she raced after the bed.  She stumbled and fell against his chest, choking on her sobs.  "Shizuka, what's wrong?  What happened?" he asked.  She shivered and buried her face in his chest and he held her gently in his arms.  "What's the matter?" he tenderly whispered.

            "It's Katsuya he's…" she shuddered and gasped for breath.

            "Did something happen to him?" inquired Anzu.

   Shizuka sniffled and gasped through her sobs, "Katsuya…stopped…he…oh God…he stopped breathing!"

   Mai and Anzu both gasped, horrified and Honda immediately gave Shizuka a warm embrace to try and comfort her.  "He's back…in…a coma," she wailed.

   I slowly backed away from the four mortals.  _This is my fault, _I thought as I melted away into the shadows.  _I am so very sorry._

**Author's Notes: **Wheee!  Another chapter of JK20 hot off the presses for your reading pleasure!  Things are going to start picking up next chapter in both the present and future story lines.  *Insert insane evil laughter here*  Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Thanks to dragonlady1220, Tuuliki, Rikki-The-Fox, Sunrise and Sunset, restlesspirit, AmunRa and BlackFireDragonK for reviewing!


	12. Chapter 11: Kidnappings and Nightmares

~Mokuba's POV~

   I hate hospitals.  I guess it's because I had to go there once when I was really young…four or five years old.  It was because of a fever, I think.  I don't really remember much about the experience; it's all a jumbled blur, like a dream that you forget once you're awake.  What I did remember was enough to give me nightmares for a long, long time.

   Now here I was again.  Except this time it wasn't me—it was Seto.  Seto, my big brother.  Seto who always watched over me.  Seto who fixed me breakfast every morning and tucked me in at night.  Seto who always, always came through for me.  Seto who I looked up to and loved more than anybody else in the world.  Seto.

   I hate doctors even more than I hate the hospital.  Do you know they didn't even want to let me see him?  My own brother!  I begged and pleaded until my voice was hoarse, and even then they only let me in for five minutes.

   I wanted to cry when I saw him.  I really did.  But I forced myself not to.  I knew that he would be upset if he knew I was crying over him.  But it was so hard not to.

   The first thing I noticed was his face.  It was so calm and relaxed it looked as if he was asleep, that he would wake up if I called.  I had to bite my tongue to keep from crying out his name.  _That isn't going to work, _I reminded myself.  _Don't be stupid._

   He was lying on his stomach, making it easy for me to see the bandages that covered his back and shoulders.  I saw a thin IV line pumping fluids into him (_Painkillers or something else? _I morbidly wondered).  I could hear the machines monitoring his vital signs buzzing and whirring.

   I cleared my throat and whispered, "Hi, Seto."  The room seemed to swallow my voice, making it dull and mute.  Or maybe it sounded that way all on its own.  Either way, it was scary.  Still, I forced myself to keep talking.

            "It's me.  Mokuba.  I…."  My voice hitched and I angrily balled my hands into fists.  _Don't cry! _I thought.  "I wish you would wake up."  I took a second to take a couple of deep breaths, then went on.

            "They're still looking for the guy that did this to you.  They aren't going to stop until they find him.  I promise."  I tore my eyes away from the half-full IV bag and looked back to his face.

            "Please come back soon, Seto.  Please.  I need you."

   That was all I got to see of him.  The doctors came in and dragged me out of the room.  One of them grunted something about there being a "risk of infection" if I stayed much longer as they closed the door behind me.

   I wandered off toward the waiting room I'd come to call "home".  _At least he didn't have a mask over his mouth or a tube down his throat like Jounouchi, _I thought as I walked.

   _Jounouchi.  _I'm ashamed to say I was jealous when he woke up.  Not just jealous, but _mad.  Why should Shizuka get to have her brother back? _I'd thought.  Even worse, a little piece of me was glad when he fell back into a coma.  _Now somebody else feels the way I feel again, _a selfish little voice in the back of my head rejoiced when I heard the news.

   I was so caught up with thinking about everything that had happened I didn't notice that somebody was behind me until a huge arm wrapped around my chest, pinning my arms to my sides.  Before I could even yell in surprise (let alone for help) a rag was tightly pressed over my nose and mouth.

   A sick-sweet smell flooded my senses, so strong I could taste it.  I recognized that smell.  When you've been kidnapped twice it's a very familiar smell.  _Chloroform! _my mind screamed.

   I thrashed and tried to turn my head away from the rag, but already my vision was clouding and my limbs were heavy.  I shuddered and my eyes slid closed.

A voice growled, "That's right, kid.  Go to sleep."

   _Sleep? _I thought.  _Yeah…sleep…NO!  Can't—gotta get away…._

   Struggling wasn't doing me any good; that much I could tell even through the fog that was wrapping around my brain.  So I went limp and prayed that my idea would work before the chloroform knocked me out.

   I didn't dare take another breath until the rag moved, but my lungs were screaming for air.  I swallowed and tried to ignore it.  _What's he waiting for…? _I groggily wondered.  And then the rag was gone!

   I took a deep breath of clean, chloroform-free air and immediately felt much better.  Then I bucked as hard as I could against my abductor's hold.

   The man who had hold of me wasn't expecting an apparently unconscious hostage to start fighting again.  He jumped and released me in his surprise.  That was all I needed.  I ran down the hall at top speed, my kidnapper right on my heels.

   _Run, run, run!  Get to the waiting room!  _I felt a hand brush through my hair and put on an extra burst of speed.  _Run!  Run!  Go!_  I ducked around a corner and felt his fingertips on my back.  _No!  _I could hear him muttering crazily behind me, cussing and talking to himself.  I could practically smell his breath.  _He's going to catch me…._

   I heard a dull thud and the man screamed a word that I won't repeat.  I risked one glance back and saw him scooping up a limp body.  _Oh my God…Shizuka, _I thought, recognizing who it was he was throwing over his shoulder.  For one terrifying moment I thought he had killed her, and then I understood: she wasn't dead…she was unconscious.

   Part of me was screaming, _Go back!  Go help her!  Don't let him kidnap her!  _But a calmer, more rational side of me was whispering, _You have to save yourself before you can save anybody else._

   I listened to that calmer voice as I ran through the halls until I finally reached the elevators.  Even though there was no sign of the man who had tried to abduct me moments ago, I didn't feel safe until the doors of the elevator slid closed behind me with a cheery _ding._

~Ryou's POV~

   I like to consider myself a somewhat easygoing person.  I rarely lose my temper and generally, I try to avoid conflict if I can.  Most people I have met seem to think that I'm shy and soft spoken, and (for the most part) I am.  However, after nearly an hour of walking through wild forest, being scratched by thorns, bitten by God knows how many mosquitoes and listening to Jounouchi rant on and on about how he "really had gone home", my patience was wearing thin.

            "Come on, guys, ya gotta believe me!" he pleaded, as he had for our entire trek to the Ruler's fortress.  "I ain't lyin' about dis.  I really _did _go home; honest!"

            "Jounouchi," I said, straining to keep from letting my exasperation show.  "Please stop trying to convince us that what you dreamt was true.  It's too bizarre to believe."

   He looked at me, shock written all over his face.  "What the…?" he trailed.  He paused for a moment before questioning, "Is it any more 'bizarre' than wakin' up a thousand years in da future?"  I said nothing and he went on, "I swear I went home and it wasn't a dream.  We were all in da hospital, and it was real!"

   Yuugi raised his eyebrows and inquired, "We were in the hospital?"

   Jounouchi turned to him, smiling, apparently relieved that somebody finally seemed to believe his story.  "Yeah," he replied.  "We were all in comas, or somethin' like dat.  I dunno.  It's all got somethin' ta do with what happened at Hill House."

            "And what exactly _did_ happen out in that godforsaken place?" Kaiba demanded, voice laden with sarcasm.  "If you know so much about it, why don't you enlighten us, mutt?"

   Jounouchi narrowed his eyes, but let the insult go.  "If I was you, Kaiba, I'd be takin' this a lot more seriously.  You're da one with third-degree burns all ova' your back.  And Ryou.  Man, you hit your head.  You've got a concussion."

   I shuddered and tried to push the images that began rolling through my memory out of my head.  _Hill House…explosion…heat…flying through the air…scream…CRASH!…one instant of blinding, skull-shattering pain…and darkness…._  Jounouchi was still talking, but I didn't hear what he was saying.  _I _did_ hit my head, _I thought.  _How did he know that?_

   I looked at first Yuugi then Kaiba and saw that they both wore expressions of varying degrees of belief.  Perhaps if Jounouchi would have had the chance to continue, he would have had us believing his story.  But that was when Jezebel let out a scream of frustration.

            "Look, robot boy, if I hear one more word about this crazy fantasy you had while you were out of it, I will rip you apart!  You got that?" she snapped, extending her claws as proof of her statement.  Jounouchi gave her a nasty look, and she added, "You know, we could have just left you back there to rust away into nothing.  But no, we fixed you and you don't even have the decency to say thank you!"

            "Well maybe I was better off 'broken'!  Did ya ever consider that?" Jounouchi growled.

   Jezebel raised an eyebrow.  "Really?  That can be arranged.  Right now, as a matter of fact!"  She pushed Kaiba out of her way, plowed Yuugi into a fern and barreled toward Jounouchi, ready to strike.

   Jounouchi started back in surprise; an action that saved him from losing an eye.  Jezebel's claws raked past him, millimeters away.

            "Stand still, damn it!" she snarled.  She swiped at him again and caught him on the cheek.

            "Jezebel, stop!" Yuugi shouted, disentangling himself from the ferns.

            "No!  He wants to be broken, fine.  I'll put him back the way he was, the ungrateful little bastard!  I'll—oh no you don't!" she broke off as Jounouchi turned and began to run.  "Come back here!"  Within seconds, they had both disappeared into the dense forest.

   There was a moment of stunned silence before Yuugi cried, "Jou!  Jezebel!  Wait!"  Before Kaiba or I could make a move to stop him, he had also vanished.

            "Yuugi!" I called, and sprinted after him.  Behind me I heard Kaiba curse under his breath before following.

   _I hope I can catch up with them before we're all separated, _I thought.  _Oh, which way did they go?  _I scanned the dense vegetation for a sign of my friends and saw a tri-colored head disappear behind a stand of mossy trees.  _There!  That way!_

I altered my course to follow Yuugi and was relieved to be able to clearly see where he was going.  He led me weaving around trees and blackberry brambles and stumbling through a patch of mud before pushing his way through a tangle of creeper vines.  He abruptly stopped his dash through the woods once he made it through the vines, and I smashed into him, surprised by his sudden halt.

   Yuugi yelled, surprised and we both went sprawling onto the ground.  Jezebel scolded us with a vicious "Shh!"

   _Ah.  We've found Jezebel and Jounouchi, _I thought as I began to get back to my feet.  Of course, the moment I had gotten up of the ground, Kaiba burst through the vines and slammed into me and I fell to the ground again, knocking Yuugi down with me for a second time.  He yelped with, and this time it was Jounouchi who said, "Quiet, guys!"

   _What's going on? _I wondered as I got up.  _Why are they so—_"Oh," I whispered aloud.  Apparently, we had arrived at the Ruler's fortress.  And what a fortress it was.  Enormous, made entirely out of smooth, seamless stone with tiny, narrow slits for windows, it was the ultimate defensive structure.  It was huge, hulking, gargantuan.  It was ugly and cold and impenetrable.  And oddly enough, there was no protective wall.

            "Wow," whispered Yuugi.  Jounouchi gave a low whistle.  Even Kaiba appeared to be taken aback by its sheer size.

            "Well, let's get going," Jezebel quietly stated.  "The sooner we get this over with the sooner I get my pay."

   I nodded and wordlessly followed as she led us to the fortress' door.  _No lock? _I incredulously thought as she easily swung the door open and stepped inside.  _I don't think I like that…something's not right.  It can't be this easy to get inside, even if the defense system _is _down._

            I took a deep breath and said, "I have a bad feeling about—"

   _FLASH!_

_   A loud, angry buzz invaded my ears, drowning out all else.  A strange, prickling sensation spread over my entire body, like feathers brushing at my skin or…or legs.  Thousands and thousands of insect legs._

_   I opened my eyes and gasped with horror.  Bees.  Bees crawling all over me, creeping, buzzing, stinging…stinging!  I screamed as the pain flooded my senses and gagged as more of the vile, winged creatures crowded into my mouth._

_   There were under my shirt, crawling under my jeans, tangled in my hair, wriggling up my nose and in my ears.  I swatted and scratched, clawed and kicked, wanting desperately to kill them, to get them off._

_   I could not kill them all, no matter what I did and I moaned as the stinging continued.  Oh, it hurt, it hurt, it HURT!_

            "Ryou!" A stinging pain across my face, but not that of the bees.  A slap?  "Come on, snap out of it!"

_   FLASH!_

   I screamed and batted wildly at my arms, legs, face and chest.  "Get them off of me!" I shrieked, ripping at my hair to get the demonic insects out.

            "Ryou!  Hey, Ryou!  Settle down, buddy!"

   Somebody grabbed my arms and forced them to the ground and I sobbed as the last dreadful remnants of the vision faded away.

            "Are you all right, Ryou?" Yuugi asked as my heart slowed back to its normal pace.

   I shakily nodded and Jounouchi let go of my arms.  "What in da hell just happened?" he queried as I sat up.

            "Th—there were bees," I whispered.  "They were…they were all over me….  It was so real…."

   Jezebel cursed heartily before saying, "I guess that explains why the Ruler decided to put all those restrictions on magic use then."

            "What are you talking about?" Kaiba demanded of her.

            "The Ruler's using magic to protect himself.  What your friend just experienced was a waking nightmare of sorts.  Nasty things, those, but mild compared to…well, other things that could have been used."

            "So how in da hell do we avoid it?" Jounouchi questioned.

   Jezebel gave him a serious look and replied, "As long as you're expecting it, the nightmares can't hurt you.  But I think we've got to get to this tower's keep and kill that bastard fast.  Come on, let's go."

   Yuugi stared at my face, wide-eyed as he helped me to my feet.  I furrowed my brow and brought my free hand to my cheek to find it wet with blood.  _I…I did that to myself,_ I realized as I followed behind Jezebel, Kaiba and Jounouchi.

   We hadn't been walking for very long at all when Kaiba gasped and doubled over, hacking and coughing.  I winced as his coughs turned to gags and his back began to heave with the force of his coughing.

            "Kaiba…?" Yuugi tentatively questioned.

   He turned around and I saw his face was drenched with cold sweat and his eyes were glazed with fever.  "I'm fine," he gasped once the coughing subsided enough for him to speak.  He wiped at his mouth to remove the flecks of blood that had gathered there before adding, "I'll be fine."

   We walked on, pausing only when the effects of the magically induced illness forced Kaiba into another round of coughing.  It was at one of these intervals that Jounouchi fell to the ground, screaming and thrashing.

   I watched him shiver and moan nonsensical phrases and felt a sick feeling in the bottom of my stomach.  _Is that how I looked when it happened to me? _I wondered.  Jounouchi soon re-awoke and we all silently accepted his request not to talk about his ordeal.

   By the time we reached the keep, none of us were in good shape.  Jezebel was unusually quiet and her hands were shaking.  Yuugi, although having suffered no magical attacks himself, was very pale.  He had not said a word since my nightmare vision.  Jounouchi was nervous and jumpy, and his eyes were haunted with the memory of whatever form of magical torture he'd endured.  Kaiba's breath was coming in short rasps and his wings drooped with fatigue.  And I had blood dripping down my face and into my eyes.

   Jezebel looked around our sorry, tired little group and whispered, "This is it.  Showtime."

~Mai's POV~

   We didn't leave the hospital for hours after Jounouchi went back into his coma.  Shizuka was so distraught that none of us felt safe leaving her alone until she'd calmed down.  By the time we walked out the doors, the sun was beginning to set, painting the sky a deep red.

   We walked across the parking lot in heavy silence.  It wasn't until we had all piled into Honda's car and he was pulling out of the parking lot that any of us said anything.

            "It's not fair," Anzu whispered.  "It's so unfair!"  She sniffed and wiped away the tears that began to trace down her cheeks.  Her cell phone began to ring, but she just leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes.

            "Anzu, your phone's ringing," Honda stated as he pulled to a stop at a red light.

            "I don't care anymore," she muttered.  "I just don't care."

   I raised my eyebrows and asked, "Mind if I answer it for you?"

            "Be my guest," she replied, tossing me the beeping phone.

   I flipped it open and said, "Hello?"

   A gravelly, harsh voice growled back, "I told you that you'd pay, you bitch!  I told you!  Now you're gonna wish you'd listened to me and kept your goddamn snot nose out of other people's business."

   I dropped the phone with a clunk.  I knew that voice all too well.  _That's the man who tried to kill me!_

   Honda gave me a quizzical look and picked up the phone.  "Hello?" he said as the light turned green.  He stepped on the gas pedal and fell silent, listening to what my would-be killer had to say.

            "You…_what?" _he suddenly hollered, stomping on the brake and sending us to a bone-jarring halt.  There was a loud honk as the truck behind us swerved to avoid taking out the back of Honda's car.  "All right, listen up, you bastard, if you hurt her I swear I'll kill you with my own hands!  Do you understand me, you ass?"  Pause.  "I DON'T CARE!" he roared.  Pause.  "You'd better…if she has one scratch on her…just _one, _I will rip out your lungs through your _mouth!"_

   He clicked off the cell phone and hurled it against the dashboard where it broke apart.  "That psycho has Shizuka," he said.

**Author's Notes: **Yes, I _am _evil.  Aren't cliffhangers great?  Well, cheers until next update!  *Deranged, possibly psychotic laughter*

   Thanks to AmunRa, Sunrise and Sunset, Ms. Zeal, dragonlady1220, BlackFireDragonK and rikki-the-fox for reviewing!


	13. Chapter 12: Into the Cesspool

CHAPTER 12

-Anzu's POV-

Three o' clock in the morning. The hour when everything seems to stop. Children sleep, parents dream. The cars have dwindled and disappeared from the streets. Teenager's curfews have passed; the shops and bars have all closed.

There's nobody out at three in the morning. Nobody to see you as you meander down the deserted sidewalks. Nobody to hear you scream, and nobody to care if you did—_which is probably exactly the reason that lunatic wants to meet us at this hour, _I thought as I stared blankly out the window of Honda's car.

The instructions had been simple. (1) Show up at Hill House at three o' clock in the morning or Shizuka dies. (2) Come unarmed or Shizuka dies. (3) Tell nobody or Shizuka dies.

_What's he planning to do? _I wondered. _Kill us? Kill Shizuka? What if she's already dead? _I shuddered and shrank down in my seat. _We should have called the police. We should have told Yami. We should have let somebody know where we were going._ I shook my head to chase away the army of "should haves" that were marching through my mind and turned to look at Honda.

He sat in the driver's seat, glaring through the windshield to the bumpy road ahead of us. His brow was set in a mask of rage and determination. His mouth was a thin, determined line and his lips were pale. His jaw was tense with fury, and I saw it twitch ever so slightly, a nearly imperceptible pulse of otherwise restrained emotion. He was pale, ashen and his face glistened with sweat. He gripped the wheel so hard his knuckles were white, though his hands were shaking badly.

_Poor Honda…he really cares about her, _I thought. He had been dangerously quiet since his conversation with the man with the Millennium Eye. It had seemed that he was devastated, both in mind and spirit. Now he looked ready to kill.

"What time is it?" Mai whispered from her seat in the back. Her voice was low and quaking.

I shifted my gaze to the digital clock on the dashboard. "2:55," I numbly answered. _Oh God, Oh God, only five more minutes, _I thought.

"D-do you think that Shizuka's—"

"Don't say it!" Honda viciously interrupted. "How can you even think that? She's fine! She'll be fine!"

Mai said nothing in response to Honda's outburst and rested her head against the window, ignoring the painful jolts as the car rumbled down the poorly-tended road.

Three minutes later (_Was it really three minutes? It seemed more like three seconds)_ we pulled onto the dirt driveway of Hill House. We piled out of Honda's car and wordlessly began our march to…what? Death? The man with the Millennium Eye? I didn't know and I didn't want to know.

_But you will know, _I thought as I looked up to the top of the hill, at Hill House._ Only one more minute, and then you'll be at the top of the hill…and then you'll find out._

I shivered and pulled my denim jacket tighter around my shoulders as I looked up at the house. It was decrepit and ugly with its missing windows and sunken roof. It was blackened and charred in the aftermath of the explosion—how it had managed to survive the blast at all was anybody's guess. This was the place where everything had started. _And this is where it's all going to end, _I thought as we climbed the half-rotted wooden steps to the front door.

For a moment, the three of us stood frozen before the door, nervous and jumpy. Beside me, I could hear Mai's breath coming in short, frightened gasps. My throat was thick with fear, and I vaguely thought, _we need to knock first. It's rude to just barge in._ Then Honda abruptly reached for the handle, and with a furious yank the door was open.

Honda took a step into the dark entryway. All remained still. I exhaled the breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding and followed him inside, Mai right behind me.

The smell of smoke clung heavy in the air, a constant reminder of the carnage that had taken place at this very site only days ago. The floor and walls were cracked and sagging. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I saw a long, badly cracked table tipped on its side and bits and pieces of broken, burnt chairs scattered around the room. It was eerily silent.

"Where's—" I began.

_BLAM! _The sound of the gunshot was a shock that made us all jump. The floor in front of us splintered and sent sharp slivers of wood flying into the air. It took my terrified mind a moment to make the connection: _The bullet had hit the floor not two feet away from us._

"I'm glad you dumb sons of bitches showed up," said the awful, rasping voice that had threatened me so many times before over the phone.

My insides turned to liquid and panic bubbled in the back of my throat at the sound of that voice. My chest felt tight and my eyes stung with salty tears. "We…we're all going to die," I croaked.__

-Jounouchi's POV-

Did you ever watch Loony Tunes when you were a kid? You know, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck…that whole crew? I used to. My favorite used to be Wile E. Coyote; the guy that was always trying to catch the Roadrunner.

I used to think it was hilarious when his oh-so-smart plans backfired on him. If he wanted to throw a stick of dynamite, it would always somehow get stuck on his hand. If he wanted to try and crush the Roadrunner under a boulder, it would always somehow crush him instead. If he tried flat-out chasing the bird, he'd always wind up running straight off a cliff. In other words, no matter how clever his little schemes were or how nifty his ACME gadgets seemed, he'd always end up with a "holy shit, I'm screwed" expression on his face before he got mangled. I was having one of those moments as we waited for Jezebel to finish picking the lock on the door to the castle keep.

_What in the hell are we supposed to do once we get inside? _I wondered as Jezebel cursed quietly and continued working with the lock. I glanced around our little group and decided, _we look like shit. Yug looks traumatized, Ryou's bleeding, Kaiba's sick and Jezebel looks like she's about ready to spazz out. It's us against the most powerful man in the whole freaking world. We are screwed. No doubt about it._

"So," I squeaked, and winced. _Christ, that sounded nice, _I thought. I cleared my throat and tried again. "So…nice place dis guy's got, eh? I mean, throw some rugs on da floor, stick some posters on da wall and it's home, man." I laughed, a choked noise that sounded completely fake. Yug and Ryou looked at me as though I had lobsters crawling out of my ears. By this point, I knew I was babbling, but I went on. "Yeah, really…I mean, he's probably rollin' in the dough, so why doesn't he bother ta—"

"You're such an annoying mutt…don't you ever stop yapping?" Kaiba inquired.

_Even when he's sick he's a pain in the ass, _I thought.I gritted my teeth, pissed off, and was about to tell the rich jerk where could he stick his attitude when his breath caught and he started hacking again. I almost felt sorry for him as sat down hard on the ground and wheezed for breath between coughs. Almost.

_Damn, _I thought as I noticed the frothy blood that bubbled over his lips and dribbled down his chin._ Guess he's getting worse. _His coughs turned into nasty-sounding gags, and then to dry retches. _Lots worse…sucks to be him._

"Kaiba…." whispered Yug as Kaiba slumped to the ground, body jerking against the dry retching. He reached out to touch Kaiba's shoulder, kind of as if to say, "Hey, man, hang in there" and Kaiba batted his hand away.

_Jesus, can't he ever swallow his pride? _I wondered as his retching finally subsided into deep wheezes, and then to heavy panting. He sounded like he'd just run the Boston Marathon at a dead sprint.

"I don't…need…anyone's help," he grated as he shakily got back to his feet. "I'm fine."

"Bullshit!" I snapped. "You're _not _fine! When someone's pukin' up blood, they ain't fine!"

Kaiba brushed at the blood that now coated his chin and lips and glared at me. Before he could bust out a good comeback, Jezebel fiercely whispered, "Shut up! I've got the lock! Are you ready to do this?"

"No," I whimpered, snapping back to the situation at hand. _Oh holy shit; we're all screwed, _I thought. Just like old Wile E. Coyote.

"Too bad," grunted Jezebel. She gave the door and it swung open to reveal…a huge room that was completely empty if you didn't count the small four-post bed with blue sheets that stood in the middle of it.

The five of us stood, blinking dumbly at the sight until Ryou finally queried, "No traps?"

"This is almost too easy," Jezebel muttered as she airily stepped into the keep. Yug, Ryou, Kaiba and I all flinched, expecting her to be smited down by the hand of God and reduced to a little pile of smoking ashes. She wasn't.

Jezebel crossed the room until she was at the head of the bed and looked down. "Huh," she said. "Well this is interesting."

We waited a couple of seconds for her to tell us what she found so 'interesting'. "What?" I questioned once I realized that she probably wasn't going to say anything else unless we asked.

She gave the four of us an odd look, then pulled back the covers on the bed.

The Ruler was there, asleep. He had wild, curly black hair and was so pale I wondered if he even knew the sun existed, let alone ever saw it. His face was round and full, but not fat. His pajamas were so decorated it made my eyes ache. And he couldn't have been any older than seven years old.

"What in the _hell?" _I whispered.

"But—" Yug trailed. Behind me, I heard Ryou quietly gasp in surprise.

"Well, let's get this over and done with, shall we?" Jezebel brightly inquired. There was a blur of motion and suddenly her hands were around the boy's neck, squeezing, choking.

The kid's eyes flew open and he kicked and scratched at the hands around his neck, but he wasn't strong enough to fight off Jezebel. It was like an ant trying to stop the Nike cross trainer that's about to smash it from coming down. The boy's eyes glittered with tears, and he must have known he was about to die.

"Jezebel, stop!" Yug screamed. He pushed past me to run into the keep.

"What? Getting squeamish at the ugly part?" Jezebel replied, squeezing all the harder. "Go wait out in the hall if you can't handle it."

Yug looked horrified and exclaimed, "You can't! He's just a kid!"

Jezebel laughed and flatly answered, "I can't just back out now, you know."

"There must be another way," Ryou said as he stepped through the door into the keep. "There must be something else we can do…."

"Idiots!" hissed Jezebel. "I'm going to kill him and get my pay and then we'll be done with it!"

"Stop this. It ain't right," I said.

Kaiba followed me into the keep and Jezebel gave him a look that said, "Talk some sense into them, would you?" He sighed and muttered, "Let him go."

Jezebel snarled with rage, but let go of the kid. He flopped back down onto his bed, gasping for breath and crying hoarsely. "You'd damn well better be paying me for all the time I've wasted," she growled.

"You'll get your pay! All of it!" Yug angrily shouted back. He sighed and brushed his bangs out of his eyes before adding, "Let's just get out of here." No sooner had the words left his mouth than the heavy door that led back to the hallway shut with a very ominous _SLAM!_ It was exactly like something out of a bad horror movie.

Behind us, the broken sobs of the seven-year-old boy got darker and deepened into the laughter of a full-grown man. And from the sound of that laughter, it was a full-grown, extremely pissed off man.

"Shit!" Jezebel screamed. She extended her claws and made a swipe at the now adult Ruler only to be sent flying head over heels through the air. She smashed into the far wall of the keep with a loud thud, fell to the floor and stayed there.

The man on the bed looked nothing like the innocent little kid we'd seen earlier. This guy was huge. His face was lined with a beard so thick it looked like a lion's mane. His biceps must have been twice the size of one of my thighs. He had a deranged, almost psychotic glint in his eyes.

"Oh my God. Oh my God," I whispered, repeating it over and over, like a skipping CD.

Kaiba was muttering a string of cuss words that would have made Jezebel proud. Yug was trembling. Ryou's eyes were so wide I doubt he could have blinked.

"Fools," he chuckled. "All of you." He eyed each of us with a look of complete and total contempt. "Mercy. Compassion. _Pity!"_ He spit the words at us like nails. "What use are these?"

He glowered at us, as though expecting an answer. When (surprise, surprise) none of us said anything, he laughed again. "Deaf and dumb, eh?" he snorted. His face went serious. "I have no use for the likes of you, my dear usurpers of the throne. You turncoats. You _traitors!"_ The word echoed off the stone walls like something out of a crazy techno song. _Traitors…traitors…traitors…._ "Into the cesspool with the lot of you!"

The Ruler waved his arm and the ground…rippled. It rippled like a wave of water. And suddenly I wasn't standing on solid ground anymore. I was falling. Falling through heavy, rancid air.

"Aaagh!" I screamed and flailed as I fell. I caught a glimpse of Kaiba out of the corner of my eye. His wings were out, and he was flapping wildly, trying to prevent his fall, but his wings didn't do anything to help him against the dead air.

I looked down and saw an endless expanse of thick, sludgy water glimmering in the dark. It churned and spun in a wild whirlpool of filth. I had time to scream one more time before I hit the surface and sank into the turbulent waters.

**Author's Notes: **Whew! I can't believe I've been working on this thing for almost a year now. It's getting close to the end now. Thanks to everyone who's put up with my less-than-wonderful update record. Summer vacation's coming up soon, so I should be able to get these chapters out a little (OK, a lot) more often than I have been during the school year. Until next time….

Thanks to WildBlackWolf and Viva, Sunrise and Sunset, dragonlady1220, Leland Lancaster and AmunRa for reviewing. You guys are wonderful!


	14. Chapter 13a: It's Hailing Bullets

-CHAPTER 13A-

-Mai's POV-

_BLAM!_

The gunshot was so loud and so sudden it made my ears sting.

_Tock—crunch!_

I heard the bullet hit the wood floor close (too close) to us. Splinters of wood spiraled into the air and then there was a sharp pain in my right hand.__

_ Oh my God, oh my God! I've been shot! _I feverishly thought. I sucked air and took a quick glance at my injured hand. Even in the badly-lit entryway of that godforsaken house, I was able to see the dark blood that was trickling down my hand in a thin rivulet.

_Not shot, _I realized. _Just a splinter._

"I'm glad you dumb sons of bitches showed up," said the voice of the man with the golden eye.

I shivered and felt my legs go weak. Every one of my instincts were screaming at me to leave, to get the hell away from the man who had tried to kill me twice before. _It's fight or flee time, Mai. Don't fight, you moron! Flee! Run away, stupid!_

"We…we're all going to die," Anzu whimpered. _Couldn't have said it better myself, _I deliriously thought.

There was a bright glint of gold from the dark and the man with the golden eye melted out of the shadows. I bit my tongue to keep from screaming. Beside me, I could hear Anzu breathing in short, frightened gasps.

"Where's Shizuka?" Honda demanded, voice dangerously low.

_ BLAM! _Another gunshot. The bullet hit the ground right in front of Honda's feet, but he gave it little notice.

"Where…is…Shizuka?" he repeated. I shuddered. His voice was little more than a growl. I tensed, expecting another gunshot, and was surprised to hear only a ringing silence.

"Where the hell is Shizuka?" he screamed. His face contorted with rage and the muscles in his neck tensed. "Where the hell is she, you son of a _bitch?!"_ He trembled with barely-restrained fury as he awaited an answer.

The man with the golden eye laughed a deep, throaty laugh that made the hair on the back of my neck prickle and Honda lost it. "What the hell did you do to her?! You goddamned bastard! I'll kill you! I'll kill you, you ass! Do you hear me? Huh? Where in the hell is she?! TELL ME—"

"Honda, stop!" Anzu sobbed.

"I'm gonna rip your head off! I'll kill you and dump you in a pile of shit! I will!"

The man just laughed louder and more heartily as the threats poured from Honda's mouth.

"—and then I'll—"

"Stop it, Honda!"

"Hahahaha…."

_Shut up, _I thought. _Please just shut up!_

Honda's eyes were wild and his hands clenched into tight fists. After spitting one last expletive for good measure, he finally snapped. With a vengeful roar, he leapt for the man with the golden eye.

"Honda, don't!" I shouted, but too late. There was no stopping him; no way to turn him back now.

Anzu screamed and covered her ears as the gunshots cracked one after another. _BLAM! BLAM! BLAMBLAMBLAM!_

Honda dropped and rolled, and then, miraculously, jumped to his feet unharmed. How he had managed to dodge the bullets I have absolutely no idea. I was still dealing with the fact that Honda had somehow managed to avoid being turned into Swiss cheese as he gave the man with the golden eye a hard kick in the gut.

Even though the man was built like a rock, Honda had the element of surprise on his side. The man sagged to the ground with a grunt and Honda easily bounded over him and began to pound his way up a flight of old, rickety stairs. He was about halfway up by the time the man regained his breath and got to his feet.

The man was about to follow Honda up the stairs when Anzu sprang onto his back with a desperate scream. The man stumbled and tried to keep his balance as Anzu grabbed for the gun. He cursed loudly and jerked hard, trying to throw her off of his back. She wrapped her legs around his waist and pawed at the hand with the gun until he lost his grip on it. The gun fell to the floor and skittered away. All of this I watched from the entryway, frozen to my spot.

"Get off of me, bitch!" the man snarled. He swatted at Anzu and pried her loose. "You damned _wench!" _he snapped, throwing her to the ground. I heard a sick pop as she landed heavily on her shoulder and she squealed with pain. I winced and thought, _It must be dislocated…or broken._

The man lifted his foot as though to kick Anzu and she twisted around onto her hands and knees and clumsily crawled away from him. She made a lunge for the gun that he had dropped, but he was too quick for her. With a grotesque shout of triumph, he kicked the gun on the ground away, reached inside his coat and withdrew a second gun.

_He'll kill her! _I thought. I sprinted across the room, trying to reach him before he could fire the gun. But deep inside, I knew I was too late. I knew that Anzu was going to die.

_How do you like that, Mai? _a nasty little voice in the back of my head prodded. _How does it feel to know you're responsible for the death of a friend? How does it feel?_

"No," I whispered. "Please."

_She's going to die. Die, die, die, die! And it's your fault!_

"NO!" I shrieked.

The man jumped, surprised by my sudden outburst. _BLAM! _The gunshot exploded, and Anzu dropped to the ground with a cry. But the man's aim had been ruined, and instead of hitting her in the head or getting any vital organs, the shot hit her in the leg, just below the knee.

I barreled into the man, throwing my body against his and he stumbled and fell to the ground with a curse. He was back on his feet in an instant, but that was all I'd needed to scoop up the gun he'd dropped.

"Go ahead, bitch," he sneered as I trained the gun on him. "Shoot."

My hand shook as I cocked the gun. My finger was on the trigger, ready. I slowly made my way over to Anzu, afraid to blink, lest the man melt away into the shadows again.

"What's the matter, bitch? Afraid?" he taunted as I pulled Anzu to her feet. She gasped as her leg buckled and I quickly draped her arm around my shoulders with my free hand.

"Come on," I whispered to her, guiding her toward the overturned table. I didn't dare take that gun off the man as I half-dragged Anzu behind the table. I carefully deposited her to the ground and she sobbed and curled into a tight ball, clutching at her battered leg.

The table wouldn't be much of a shield, I knew. But at least it was _something_ between her and that lunatic. "You're going to be fine," I whispered to her. Then louder, to the man with the golden eye, "You want to play?" I stepped over the table, gun still locked on him. "Let's play."

* * *

-Honda's POV-

I thundered up the flight of stairs as fast as I could go with only one thought in my head: _Find Shizuka._ I heard a scream from below, answered by a garbled snarl. _That bastard, _I thought. _He's going to pay for this._ My legs strained as I powered up, up, up and finally reached the second floor.

I was at the end of a long, dusty hall. The doors that lined the hall had once been painted white but were now so old most of the paint had peeled away. The hall was completely empty.

_Don't worry, Shizuka, I'm coming for you, _I thought as I tried the first door. Locked, of course. I rattled the knob in my hand and kicked at the old wood, hoping that I could get in by force. No good. "Damn," I muttered.

The next door was locked. So was the next. And the next. By the time I reached the last door, I was thoroughly pissed with myself. _You just had to go rushing up the stairs, didn't you? Damn moron. I don't even know if she's really up here or if I'm just wasting time._

_ BLAM! _The gunshot from downstairs made my guts twist. I strained, listening for anything that would tell me what was going on down there, any sign that Mai or Anzu were still alive and heard nothing.

_Is that good or bad? _I wondered to myself as I moved on to the last door. _Why in the hell did I leave them down there with that psychopath? What in the hell was I thinking? Stupid! I should have stayed there to protect them!_

I grabbed the doorknob and was surprised when it turned easily in my hands. I pulled open the door and almost cried with relief to see Shizuka topple into the hall. Her hands were tightly bound behind her back and a gag was tied around her mouth. She was dirty and her eyes were puffy and swollen with tears. Her face was tear streaked, her hair was a total rat's nest and she had a cut that ran across her forehead and over her right eyebrow. She was sweaty, her jeans were ripped and one of her shoes was missing. She'd never looked more beautiful.

"Shizuka," I breathed, immediately dropping to my knees. She gazed up at me, shaken, but _alive_. My hands shook so badly I couldn't have tied my own shoes, but somehow I managed to untie the gag.

"Honda," she whimpered once the gag had been removed.

"That asshole didn't hurt you, did he?" I inquired as I began to work on the ropes around her wrists.

"N-no. I'm fine. Just scared." She paused a moment, then whispered, "Honda, what's happening? I heard gunshots. Is everything all right?"

I pressed my lips into a thin line and finished freeing her hands before replying, "Don't worry. I won't let anything happen to you."

I began to work at the knots around her ankles and felt my heart skip a beat when she threw her arms around my neck and sobbed. I left working on the knots for a moment to fold her into my arms and rub her back.

"I'm s-sorry," she choked. "I'm just s-so afraid. Katsuya in the hos…hospital and…and th-that man." She hiccupped before adding, "I don't know what to d-do anymore!"

_That goddamned son of a bitch,_ I thought. _I'll send him straight to hell._ I hugged her closer to me and brushed away the hair that had been plastered onto her forehead with blood and sweat. "Shh," I whispered. "It's going to be all right now."

I looked into her eyes and felt a shiver go through me. The air seemed to crackle with electricity. I gently tilted her face up to mine and closed my eyes as I brought my lips to hers. She tensed, surprised at first, then relaxed into my arms, into the kiss.

The world seemed to stop. For just one second, everything was OK. I felt something inside of me dancing wildly at the feeling of her soft, warm lips on mine. It was a feeling I wanted to have forever. But then, we parted and as suddenly as it had started, it was over. The magic, the warmth, the electricity was gone. The full weight of our situation came crashing back down on top of me.

_What in the hell are we going to do now? _I wondered to myself as I silently went back to work on the knots that held her ankles.

* * *

-Mai's POV-

"You want to play? Let's play."

_Oh my God, did those words just come out of my mouth?_

The man with the golden eye trained his gun on me and laughed that nasty, spine-tingling laugh of his in response.

_What am I going to do now? Oh lord, what am I going to do now? _"Put…put the gun down," I said. My gun hand trembled and my voice was high and thin. _Yeah, Mai, real convincing, _I chided myself.

"You don't have the balls, bitch. You don't have the balls to shoot me," snorted the man through his laughter.

"Put the gun down! I mean it!" I yelled.__

I heard a click and sickly realized that he had cocked his gun. I swallowed and slowly grated out, "Put. The. Gun. Down."

"Shoot the goddamned gun!" taunted the man. "Do it! Last chance, you whore! Do it now!"

_This is it, _I thought. _Do or die. _I closed my eyes and slowly, oh-so-carefully, I pulled the trigger.

_Click._ My eyes flew open. "Oh God no," I whispered. "Please no." _It was empty!_

_BLAM!_

I shrieked as the gunshot sounded. The bullet zinged past me and ricocheted off the far wall._ My gun is empty…but his definitely isn't!_

I dropped my gun and ran.

_BLAM! _I dove to one side and zigzagged my way into a smaller adjoining room. Old, broken-down stove…useless, rusted sink…peeling linoleum…cupboards with no doors…an ancient, abandoned coffee brewer._ A kitchen, _I thought.

"You can run all you want, bitch!" shouted the man. "I'll get you!"

I heard his booming footsteps fast approaching and frantically searched for a hiding place. _No cupboards with doors…no pantry…not even a crappy table to hide under!_ I despairingly realized. _I can't stay here!_

"You're dead!" he roared.

_Where can I go? What can I do? _I shifted my weight from one foot to the other, back and forth in a hysterical dance. Desperately, I scanned the room one last time, praying that a hiding place would present itself. My eyes settled on a dark doorframe.

I made a dash for that doorway and dove through as the man burst into the kitchen. I was at the end of an extremely dark hall. I squinted, trying to see where it led and apprehensively noted that I could barely see two feet in front of me. _I don't know if I like that, _I thought.

I didn't have much time to think the matter through. From the kitchen, I heard the man raging, spitting curses and wrathfully kicking at the decrepit cupboards. It was more than enough to convince me that the unknown was safer than facing that madman. I set off down the hall, brushing cobwebs and dirt out of my face as I ran.

* * *

-Anzu's POV-

Pain. Pain greater than anything I'd ever experienced screamed through me. I wanted to cry, wanted to scream, wanted to do something to give voice to that pain. But all I could manage was a sick little whimper.

I could focus on nothing else besides the hurt. My brain was urgently screaming at me to _do something_ about this pain. It seemed to ebb and flow through my body in waves that were vaguely located somewhere near my left leg and my right shoulder.

_I'm going to die, _I thought, curling myself into an even tighter ball. I trailed my good hand over the bloody mess that used to be my left leg and gasped as the action sent a spear of agony through me. I could feel something hard and jagged below my knee and sickly wondered if it was bone. _I'm never going to dance again, _I hazily realized.

I tried to laugh at the thought, but all that came out of my mouth was a pained cough. There was so much blood…my jeans were soaked with it, the floor was covered with it. I was lying in a puddle of it, and it was warm and sticky. _Did he get an artery? _I wondered.

_It's so quiet, _I thought. It _was_ quiet—much too quiet. Where Mai and the man with the gun had gone I didn't know. When (if) they were coming back, I had no idea. I knew only one thing: I would die when that man came back. He would shoot me through the head. Or the heart. Or watch me bleed to death, or whatever else fit his fancy.

_No, _I thought. _Have to do something._

I tried to sit up and flopped back to the ground with a moan as my broken (it _was_ broken—it had to be!) shoulder screamed in protest. _All right…that's not going to work…._

I glanced around what little of the room I could see around the table and saw nothing, absolutely _nothing _that could help me. _Come on, there's got to be something, _I thought. _Look for it!_

I swept my eyes across the room again. I saw a bit of broken chair…a spent bullet…a pebble…nothing useful. And then I noticed the trunk. It was old and rusted, like everything else in that awful house. But it was big. And it had to be heavy. And it was so very temptingly close to falling to the ground floor from its place near the top of the stairs. _At the top of the stairs._

I smiled and cough-laughed again. _Like I can really make it up the stairs, _I miserably thought. _That's it. Game over. _I shivered. I knew the man would be back any second to kill me.

_No._ Somewhere inside of me, a fire began to burn. _I won't let him. I won't! _"I…won't die," I whispered. I twisted and tried to roll onto my stomach. Immediately, pain assaulted my senses, ringing in my ears and blinding me.

_Go…do it, _I thought. _Do it now. Now!_

I jerked and flopped onto my stomach. It was as though a bomb had gone off in my head. I saw lights behind my eyes as agony that I could hardly comprehend snapped through my brain. I coughed and vomited and slowly, the pain receded back to the pounding ache I'd become accustomed to.

_Get to the stairs. _Weakly, my hand shaking crazily, I dragged myself a few inches forward with my good arm. I clenched my jaw as fire raced through my shoulder and down my right side and forced myself to repeat the action. I _had _to keep going. And so I made my way to the foot of the stairs.

I almost gave up when I looked up that flight of stairs. Part of me wanted nothing more than to stop, to just lie down and die. But a larger, deeper part of me wouldn't let me do that. It was a basic, primal part of me; a simple will for survival and self-preservation.

I pulled with my good hand and wriggled against the steps, trying to climb up. My leg limply flopped behind me and it hurt, hurt, hurt, _hurt! _I whined with pain as the edge of the first step bit into my stomach. _Can't stop…keep going…._

Up I climbed, resting every few stairs and still no sign of Mai, the man, Honda or Shizuka. I'd nearly made it to the top when my good leg slipped and I rolled down a couple of stairs.

My vision went black and I felt as though I was floating. "Hurgh," I miserably gurgled, clenching my good hand into a fist. _Am I passing out?_ I wondered through the buzzing in my ears.

As if to spite me, my vision cleared and I gradually came back to my senses. I gazed up to the top of the stairs. _Only five steps to go, _I thought. _So close._

I reached out and pulled, forcing myself to ignore the burning in my shoulder and leg. _Four. _I wriggled and bit my tongue as the edge of the step dug into my side. _Three. Don't give up…. Two. You've got it…. One. _A final burst of effort and I was limply sprawled at the top of the stairs. I took a moment to rest before pulling myself to the chest.

_I did it, _I groggily thought.

"Anzu!"

I recognized that voice, but it took my exhausted mind a moment to place it. "H-Honda?" I whispered.

"Holy shit," he breathed. "What happened to you?"

"Oh my God! Anzu!"

I blinked. _Oh. We've found Shizuka._

"We've got to get you out of here," Honda was saying. "We've got to get you to a hospital."

I tuned him out, the matter of little importance to me. "The chest," I whispered.

"What?"

I was so out of it I couldn't tell whether Honda or Shizuka had spoken. "Push the chest down…on…him…." I closed my eyes. I was suddenly so very tired.

"Anzu! Anzu don't close your eyes! Anzu…."

_G'night, _I thought as I sank into unconsciousness.

* * *

-Mai's POV-

"You goddamned stupid bitch!"

_BLAM!_

"You get back here!"

_BLAM!_

_ Is he gaining? I think he's gaining…oh God he's going to catch me!_ I thought as I dodged blindly to avoid the bullets.

"You'll never get away! You hear me?"

I could taste my own fear; a bitter taste in the back of my throat. _Please don't let this be a dead end…._

_BLAM!_

I whimpered with fear and forced myself to move faster. Ahead, I saw light. Silvery, shadowy moonlight, but light all the same. _Head towards the light, _I thought. Yeah, that's right Mai. It's the light at the end of a long tunnel—just like when you die.

"You damn whore!"

Head for the light, Mai.

_BLAM!_

_ Doesn't that gun ever run out of bullets? Or is that another one?_

"I've got you!"

_No!_ "Arrrrgh!" I shrieked as I burst out of the hall and into the light. I was right back where I'd started, in the room near the entryway. Everything was as it had been as I'd left it. The table was still overturned. The ground was still littered with bits of broken chairs. Dirt and grime still coated everything. But—no…not everything was the same.

_Where's Anzu? _I wondered as I sprinted across the room. I saw a broken trail of blood across the floor and followed it across the room and towards the stairs with the man right behind me.

I leapt for the stairs when and there was an earsplitting crash behind me. I whirled around and nearly wet myself with shock. A large chest had apparently fallen from the sky and landed directly on top of the man. _What in the world?_

"Mai!"

"Hey, are you all right?"  
_Honda? Shizuka? _I looked up and there they were, at the top of the stairs, Honda with an apparently unconscious Anzu on his back. _Did they do it? _I wondered. _It must have been them._ "Y-yes," I stammered. "I'm fine. What—"

"It was Anzu's idea," Shizuka quickly broke in.

I nodded to show I understood and wordlessly walked back down to the bottom of the stairs. The gun was there, lying on the floor almost innocently, as though nothing had happened. I snatched it up. Its grip was still warm.

Behind me, Honda and Shizuka descended the stairs. _Thank God it's over, _I thought. But then, to my complete and utter horror, I heard that grating voice growl, "Now I'm _pissed!"_

The chest, that big, heavy chest, shook and tipped onto its side with a dull thud. And slowly, the man rose to his feet.

I couldn't believe it. It was ridiculous, completely unbelievable. And yet there he was.

"Yaaaah!" I screamed. I raised the gun and pulled the trigger. _BLAM! _He staggered. "Why won't you die?!" I shrieked. I pulled the trigger again. _BLAM! _And again. _BLAM!_ And again. _BLAM!_ Each time the man stumbled and shuddered until finally he sank to the ground.

"There!" I snapped, dropping the gun to the floor. "Dead now!"

"Mai…." Shizuka whispered.

I couldn't have been more wrong. The man began to laugh, gurgling and choking on his own blood. "You'll die," he stated. "If I go…you're…going…with me…."

"Come on," Honda whispered, steering me towards the door. "Let's get out of here."

"You're all dead!" wheezed the man as we ran for the door. We could hear his horrible laughter even as we raced out the front door. It followed us down the hill and all the way to Honda's car. I would swear I heard it until we'd all piled in and slammed the doors. And as we started the engine, there was a flash of light and an insanely loud explosion. We all screamed like five-year-olds.

The sound seemed to echo long after the light died away, crackling in the air. When I finally had the courage to look, Hill House was a smoldering heap of ashes.

"That crazy son of a bitch," Honda whispered.

For several minutes, all we could do was stare at the remains of Hill House. Finally, Shizuka whispered, "Honda, Anzu needs to get to a hospital now. And I want to go home."

"Yeah. Yeah…right," he distractedly replied. "Let's go."

The car started with a whine of protest and off we drove, back to Domino.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Well, here is my extremely long chapter! Next up, we'll get to see what in the heck happened to Seto, Jounouchi, Ryou, Yuugi and Jezebel. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!

Thanks to Sunrise and Sunset, Leland Lancaster, AmunRa, WildBlackWolf and Viva, Tuulikki, Wizzu, dragonlady1220 and Yuki Tsukihana for reviewing. You guys rule! Also, a special thank you to shadowwaker for the awesome fan art (Squee! Seto with wings)! I love it!


	15. Chapter 13b: Life Is But a Dream

-CHAPTER 13B-

-Yuugi's POV-

The water in the cesspool was the filthiest, foulest sludge I'd ever seen. It was blood-warm and greasy, clinging to my skin in sticky black droplets. The stench was absolutely horrific, enough to make your nose burn and your eyes water. The current threw me on a disorienting roller coaster ride of ups and downs and sucked at me, trying to pull me under. I kicked out against the soupy, thick water and tried desperately to keep my head above the surface.

"Jou! Ryou! Jez—" I broke off and hacked miserably as some of the oily water splashed into my mouth. The water sprayed everywhere and left a nasty slippery feeling on my tongue and in my throat. _What's in this stuff? _I disgustedly wondered to myself. _Is it poisonous?_ I shuddered and shouted, "Jez…Jezebel! Kaiba!"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flicker of movement. I flailed my arms and somehow managed to ride the current to turn and see Jezebel being pummeled against a wall by the rushing water. She was thrashing her head from side to side, trying to avoid being blasted full in the face by the foul stuff while attempting to find some sort of handhold on the wall.

"Jezebel!" I screamed above the roar of the frenzied water. She either didn't hear me or didn't care as she hacked at the cement with her claws.

_I've got to get to her…she'll drown if I don't do something to help, _I thought, and tried to swim closer. The current hit me immediately, pulling me relentlessly back, away. _No! _I kicked viciously. I crept forward by mere inches, only to be dragged even farther away.

"Rrrgh!" I growled, frustrated. "Come on!" But no matter how hard I lashed out against the current, it always held me back, too far away to offer what little help I could. All I could do was watch as her claws broke away and she roared with pain as they began to bleed. I could do nothing at all when the current finally overwhelmed her and dragged her down, writhing in protest.

"Jezebel! No! Jezebel! Je—" A pair of hands clamped down on my shoulders and I was dunked underwater. I tried to yell with surprise, but got only another mouthful of polluted water for my troubles. I struggled against the hands, near panicking as the awful waters closed over my head and managed to break free of their hold. I burst back to the surface with a gasp.

"Yuugi! I'm sorry! Are you all right?"

_Ryou, _I thought. I blinked, trying to keep the slimy water out of my eyes and shakily replied, "I'm fine. Have you seen any of the others?"

His already pale face went completely white and I had to strain to hear him above the roar of the water as he faintly replied, "Yes. I saw Kaiba. He…."

"What? Where is he?"

A troubled flicker came over his face. "His wings…they must have been so heavy. They dragged him down and…" (he lowered his voice to a frightened whisper) "Yuugi, I think he drowned. I saw him go under and…." He trailed off, ominously leaving the rest up to my imagination. "Have you seen Jounouchi yet?"

I mutely shook my head. Kaiba? Drowned? It seemed ridiculous, impossible. There was no way that Seto Kaiba could be dead! _But then…you saw Jezebel get pulled under, _a nasty voice in the back of my head prodded. _Who's to say the same thing couldn't have happened to Kaiba?_

I came back to my senses in time to hear Ryou whisper, "I think we're the only ones left then, Yuugi. What are we going to do? How…how can we get out of here?"

"I don't think we can," I quietly answered. _No, that can't be right! There must be some way out of this! Jou and Kaiba and Jezebel must still be alive…they have to be! We're all going to get out of here and go back to our time together. That's the only way it can be!_

I felt a strange pull in the current and suddenly I was spinning away from Ryou as the water bucked in peaky waves around us. "Yuugi!" he screamed after me. I could hear him splashing against the rough water, then a choked-off yell…and then nothing but the rushing of the water.

"R…Ryou?" There was no answer. "Ryou!" _Oh no, no, no, no! This isn't happening! _"Ryou!" _I can't be the only one left! I can't! _"Ryou! RYOU!"

I groaned as my left thigh was seized with a gut-wrenching pain. _Cramp, _I realized. I forced myself to keep treading water, but the pain began to burn and spread up my leg and into my guts.

_Don't give up…._ My leg was weak, shuddering with the effort of keeping me afloat. _Have to stay above the water…._ It felt as though somebody was twisting a knife into my side. My arms ached.

_This will never end…there's no way out._ I couldn't kick any longer. I began to sink. _Never, never, never ends…._ The water climbed up my neck, past my chin, my nose, my forehead…._ You'll die._ The water closed over my head. _No!_

I twisted in a final pathetic attempt to reach the surface. My vision clouded with black splotches that slowly grew to cover everything. I let the last of my breath go and felt consciousness begin to slip away.

* * *

-Jounouchi's POV-

I was dying. Strangely enough, my brain came to grips with the fact long before my body did. Kind of hard to believe, isn't it? After all, everyone always pegs me as a hopeless optimist. But there was a long time between realizing what was going to happen to me and actually feeling my body weakening, losing its will to survive, finally accepting the fact that there was no escape.

I twitched my fingers and took a gulp of the nasty water that I was drowning in. _This is it, _I thought. _I guess the world won't have Katsuya Jounouchi to kick around anymore…. Heh. What a pity._ I shut my eyes, at peace with the fact that I was about to kick the bucket. And then…_FLASH!_

_ I wasn't in the cesspool anymore. I was back home… _really _back home, not lying in some hospital bed. Mattress on the floor, covered with a mess of sheets and blankets. Beat up phone. Window with bird crap spattered all over it. I was in my bedroom. I was huddled in a corner, heart hammering crazily in my chest. My hands trembled and my knees felt shaky. And for some reason, I was scared shitless._

_ "Worthless little prick! Stealin' all my goddamn money!"_

Dad? _I thought. _Like I really want that asshole to be the last person I see before I croak.

_"Where the hell is it?" Hands grabbing me, shaking me so hard my teeth clacked together in my head. "Huh? What the hell did you do with it?"_

_ The hands let me go so suddenly that I stumbled back, slamming into the wall behind me. "I…I b-bought—"_ Jesus, _I thought. _Do I always sound this pathetic when he's drunk?

_ "The hell? What'd you buy, you ungrateful son of a bitch?"_

_ "I bought food! W-we were all out a-and--" I could feel hot tears building in my eyes and sliding down my face. _What in the _hell _is going on? I haven't cried in front of him since….

_ His face went burgundy and he opened and closed his mouth in wordless rage._

Wait a sec…I remember this, _I realized. _This has happened to me before…right after Shizuka and mom left. Is this supposed to be my life flashing before my eyes before I die? This memory isn't exactly at the top of my 'great life experiences' list, but whatever.

_ I cringed and closed my eyes as he raised one of his beefy hands into the air. I knew what was coming next, and I knew there was no way to stop it._

Damn, this is going to hurt.

CRASH! _The sound of glass shattering made me jump with surprise._

What the hell? _I thought. _That's not what comes next…and my old man never drinks out of bottles. So damn cheap he can only afford the stuff that comes in cans. What the hell is this?

_I cracked an eye open and saw an imposing man with squared shoulders towering over me. His hair was a salt-and-pepper pattern of grays and he was wearing a suit that must have cost a ridiculous amount of money. Glass shards littered the ground around his feet like confetti, and an intoxicatingly sweet smell wafted to my nose. I furrowed my brow, totally confused. _Is that wine? _I wondered._

_ I glanced back down at the expensive-looking Persian rug and saw that it was spattered with a reddish-purple substance. _OK, so it _is _wine. Wait…Persian rug? Where did that come from?

_ I took a quick look around the room. Big mahogany desk that was polished so much it made my eyes sting. Two complete walls of books in carved shelves. A chandelier that was ornamented with crystal. A fireplace that was trimmed with gold._

OK…this isn't my room anymore, _I decided._ Where am I? What's going on? Who _is _this guy?

_ "I simply cannot believe what a spoiled, ungrateful brat you are!" the man snapped._ Huh? I've never even freaking _met _this guy before. Where does he get off calling me a brat? _I fumed. I would have gone on silently ranting if he didn't choose that second to go on with, "When I found you, you were nothing but a worthless, pathetic orphan! A street urchin! A damned _mutt!"__

_ I flinched at the word 'mutt'. _Christ, what'd this guy do? Take lessons from Kaiba? _I wondered._

_"I took you in; you and that whelp of a brother of yours. And you can't even show me proper gratitude!"_

What _is _this? _I wondered. _I don't _have _a brother. What's going on? What's he talking about?

_"You will learn to show your superiors the respect they deserve, Seto. I will not tolerate being trifled with. Is that clear?"_

Did he just say 'Seto'? Does this bastard think I'm Kaiba? What in the…? __

_ I opened my mouth to tell him that he was a psycho and that my name sure as hell wasn't Seto. I was more than a little surprised when all that came out of my mouth was a bitter, "Yes, Gozaburo-sama." _What in the hell? That isn't my voice!

_I was shocked out my train of thought when the man's hand caught me on the cheek with a sharp slap._

_"How dare you take that tone with me, boy! You'll learn respect if you ever expect to run Kaiba Corp. in my place. By God, you will!"_

What?

_He seized me by the forearm and dragged me across the room, to a small mahogany door. He yanked the door open to reveal a tiny closet, stuffed with coats and shoes. It was barely big enough for me to fit into, let alone sit down in. I wrinkled my nose as the smell of mothballs filtered to my nose. "You'll be rooming in here tonight, Seto," he snapped, shoving me into the mini-closet._

_ "But—"_

_ "Hopefully by morning, you'll have learned your lesson."_

_ "Wait!"_

What is up with this? My voice almost sounds like…_. As the door swung closed, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror across the room. I was tiny…no older than eight. Instead of my usual messy blond tresses, I had neatly combed brown hair. My eyes were blue. My complexion was a lot paler, and I was as skinny as a freaking beanpole._

OK, this isn't good, _I decided. _I _am _Kaiba. Is this supposed to be one of his memories…or am I just going bananas?

SMACK! _The feeling of the heavy hand smashing into my jaw caught me so off guard that I yelped with surprise. The stench of cheap booze invaded my senses._

_ "Shut up, you son of a whore!"_

Dad again, _I realized. _I'm back in my own memory again…at least I think I am. What in the hell was that all about?

* * *

-Seto's POV-

_ "Yuugi…Yuugi, wake up."_

_ I snapped my eyes open, surprised. _Is that Yuugi's grandfather? _I silently wondered. _What's that old man doing here? What's going on? Have I already died?

_I felt a hand on my shoulder, gently shaking me. "I know it's late, Yuugi, but you need to wake up."_

Does he really think I'm Yuugi? He's even more senile than I figured him to be.

_I was ready to tell him exactly what I thought of him mistaking me for his own grandson, but was absolutely flabbergasted when all that I found myself able to say was, "Grandpa…what's going on? Why—"_

_ "I'm sorry, Yuugi, but I'm afraid I have some bad news."_

I'm not your grandson! _I thought. _What's the matter with you? _I sat up and was taken aback to realize that I was in a room that I had never seen before. It was a bedroom, that much I could easily surmise by the bed and dresser. From what I saw, it was a room that belonged to a very young child. The bedclothes were covered with various cartoon characters. The floor was littered with cheap plastic toys. There was a nightlight that looked like the Dark Magician shining on the wall near the door._

_ "Bad news?" I repeated, though not of my own volition. My voice sounded strangely higher than normal._ What's going on?Am I in Yuugi's room? How did I get into Yuugi's room?

_"It's about your parents," Yuugi's grandfather stated._

_ I yawned and inquired, "What is it?" I tried to add, "What am I doing here?" or "Why are you calling me Yuugi?", but I found myself unable to speak._

_ Yuugi's grandfather gave me a deeply sorrowful look and put his arms around my shoulders in a tender hug. I felt him shudder and realized that he was crying._

_ "Grandpa, what is it? What's wrong?"_ Why do I sound so different? And why did I just call him 'grandpa'? I'm acting as though I really am Yuugi…. 

_"There was an accident on the highway," whispered Yuugi's grandfather. "Your parents—" his voice hitched and he sighed before continuing with, "They got caught in it. They died, Yuugi."_

_ "W-what? No…they're not…they can't be! Grandpa!"_

What's happening to me? Why am I seeing this?

_I felt tears pooling in my eyes and I let out an anguished shriek. Yuugi's grandfather gave my shoulders a squeeze and whispered, "It's all right, my boy. It's going to be all right. We'll get through this together."_

_ The scene became oddly blurred, as though I was watching it through a fogged window. Outlines became hazy and began to shift and melt away. I felt a bitingly cold wind gliding under my wings and blowing in my face and realized that I was flying.. _Wings? I suppose that means that I'm me again, _I thought._

_ The world slowly came back into focus. Everything was white and gray. The clouds were thick and heavy, and they hovered close to the ground. The ground was covered with a heavy layer of snow for as far as I could see in every direction. Even the sunlight was strangely colorless._

Now where am I? _I perplexedly wondered._

_ "Come back here, you damn freak!" _What? Where did that come from?

_I took a quick look behind my shoulder and saw a small army of people on horseback thundering after me far below._

This isn't good…how did I get into this predicament?

_"You can't get away from us!" _Fssh! _Something small and light whizzed by me, narrowly missing my head. I saw a brief flash of feathers, shaft and point. _An arrow… shit, they're armed!" _I realized._

_ I flew on, willing my wings to move faster, to flap harder and tried to dodge the arrows that whistled through the air. Below, I could hear the horses panting and snorting with fatigue and their riders cursing and urging them on._

_ "We'll catch you!"_

Why are these people after me? What's—_"Arrgh!" I screamed with surprise and pain as an arrow buried itself in my left thigh, just above my knee. I felt a thin trail of blood seep from the wound and trickle down my leg. There was a cheer from the crowd below me and I felt a second jab of pain, this time from my right wing._

_ I flapped wildly, trying to stay airborne, but my injured wing buckled and sent me plunging down. The cheer of the crowd became a roar of triumph as I tumbled through the air and landed hard on the icy ground. I struggled to get to my feet as the crowd drew near, but my wounded leg was unable to support my weight and the best I could do was a half-crouch._

_ I grit my teeth to keep from crying out as a hand latched on to my good wing and gave it a hard yank, but couldn't hold back a hiss of agony as the arrow in my other wing was forcefully wrenched out. _These lunatics are going to kill me! _I realized, and struggled to get away._

_ "Stay still, mutant!" snapped a rough voice from somewhere on my left. A pair of arms circled under my arms and around my shoulders in a bizarre bear hug that effectively rendered me helpless._

_ "So whaddaya think we should do with this one, boss?" queried a whiny voice from my right._

_ I heard a sadistic chuckle from somewhere directly behind me, and a deeper voice answered, "I think we need to fix him. You know, make him normal, like us." A wave of raucous laughter rippled through the group at this statement. The hands on my wings tightened their grip as the voice added, "First thing we'll need to take care of is those wings. No human's got wings, after all."_

_ I gasped as my wings were jerked hard from behind. Something audibly popped out of place and fire shrieked through my right shoulder blade. I swiped the air with my claws and fought against the arms that were holding me in place._

_ "They ain't comin' off," said the whiny voice._

_"Well, pull harder, moron!" snapped the voice behind me._

_ Another jerk and I felt the bones at the base of my wings shudder in protest. They're going to rip my wings off if I don't do something right now! I thought, and flailed against the arms that held me in their iron grip. My claws sank into something soft and fleshy, and there was a scream from whoever it was that had hold of me. Something warm and wet trickled over my claws to cover my hands. I felt the grip loosen and I wriggled, trying to get free of the arms._

_ "Oh sweet Jesus!" screeched the whiny voice as I broke free._

_ "Holy shit, this is a dangerous one!" hollered the voice behind me. "Let's go! Come on!"_

_ I heard a rush of frenzied activity around me, and the pounding of horse's hoofs, and then all was quiet once again. The man that had been holding me slumped to the ground, neck covered_ _in sticky blood._

He's dead, _I thought_. I killed him….

* * *

-Ryou's POV-

I'd sunk so deep into the cesspool that everything was pitch black. My lungs felt stale and they were begging me to get back to the surface for air, but I'd been tumbled around so much I couldn't even tell the difference between up and down. The weight of the water was crushing me, making my guts ache and my head throb. My mind went fuzzy, unable to differentiate between what was real and what was not.

I allowed myself to relax, to give in and reflexively breathed in the water. There was no pain as the water flooded down my throat and into my lungs. I felt oddly warm. My eyes slowly closed of their own accord, then…_FLASH!_

_ "How dare you try to get rid of me, boy? How dare you deny your destiny?"_

_ I shuddered. I knew that awful, rasping voice well. I heard it in my nightmares often, and in my head daily. There was no way to mistake it._

_I opened my eyes and realized that I was sitting on an overstuffed sofa. The floor was covered with a shaggy carpet that was a hideous shade of green. Scattered here and there around the room were all the knick-knacks and artifacts my father used to send me when he was out on one of his expeditions. My Yami stood directly before me, glaring at me as though I was a cockroach._

I'm home, _I thought_. How…?

_"I…I…."_ What's the matter with me? _I wondered_. Why can't I speak?

_"I…I…" mocked my Yami, pulling his face into a mask of disgust. "Worthless, pathetic excuse of a mortal! You make me sick!"_

_ "I'm tired of being treated like a slave!" Once again, the words had come without my bidding. But even as the words left my mouth, I was attempting to find our mind link._ **Bakura**, _I thought, hoping that perhaps I had found a way to ask him what had happened_. **Bakura, listen to me, please. I need you to tell me how I got home.**

_"You don't even know the meaning of the word 'slave'," he spat._

**Bakura, please! Answer me!**

_"And you don't know the meaning of the word 'decency'," I angrily replied_.

**Bakura! I don't know what's going on here, but I can't control what I'm saying! Can you hear me?**

_ His eyes narrowed to poisonous slits, but he said nothing in reply to my outburst. I went on, bolder now. "You think that being the spirit of the Ring entitles you to use me, take over my body whenever it fits your fancy. You constantly hurt my friends and lock me away in my soul room without any warning whatsoever…and after you've had your fun making my life a living hell, you give me these excuses about 'destiny' and 'history repeating itself'!" I leapt off the couch, hands balled into fists._

He can't hear me, _I realized as my mouth continued to speak of its own accord. "So can you really blame me for wanting to throw away the Millennium Ring? Can you look me in the eye and give me one good reason not to have the foul thing melted down and destroyed?"_

Wait…I remember this, _I thought_. This was just after Duelist Kingdom.

_Bakura gave me one of his most toxic glares, reserved only for when he was truly angry. "If you stop this insolence this instant, your punishment will not be too severe," he snarled_.

Don't keep going, _I silently pleaded with myself_. You're going to regret it later. _But of course, there was no stopping what I knew was about to come._

_ "I don't care anymore, Bakura. I don't! Besides, what can you do? You can't kill me, unless you want to be trapped in the Ring until kingdom come."_

_ He was very quiet as he fixed me with a look that was ice-cold. Calmly, coolly, he stated, "Unfortunately, you are correct that I cannot kill you. However…." He trailed just long enough to let goose bumps prickle down my arms before going on with a sadistic grin, "There are things worse than death."_

_ I felt a very strange sensation as he began to merge back into the Ring and realized with horror that he was attempting to take over my mind. I fought desperately against the fog that was creeping into my head, but it was impossible to resist._

_ "Since I cannot kill you…perhaps I will kill one of your friends in your place," he stated as he completely disappeared._

_ The scene went mercifully black after that grim statement._

I'm glad I didn't have to see him doing…whatever he did, _I thought_. If I'm not mistaken, that's the time that I woke up covered in blood…and it wasn't my blood. Of course, he didn't kill any of my friends…I'm sure it was a rabbit, or some other poor, defenseless creature. What a brute.

_ I was rudely pulled out of reflecting on Bakura's cruelty by the loud crack of a whip immediately followed by an excruciating pain in my back._

_ "Agh!" I yelped._

_ "Silence, slave!" shouted a voice from somewhere behind me._

That's not my Yami, _I thought_. What's going on? _Aloud, my mouth once again spoke without my consent. "I have a name, and I would appreciate it if you would use it from now on."_

_ "Your name is slave, because that's what you are!" the voice growled. There was another explosive crack and I groaned with misery as the whip landed on me again. I could feel blood beginning to run down my back. My arms were beginning to ache, and only now did I notice that I was suspended four or five feet above the ground, hanging by only my arms._

What's all this? _I wondered_. I don't believe that this has ever happened to me before…or has it? No! I'm sure that I've never been through this! _"No, my name is Elijah," I replied_. What?

_ "Oh, 'Elijah', is it?" SNAP! The whip sent fire down my back once again. "You have no reason to be high and mighty, 'Elijah'…you're a worthless slave! Do you hear me?"_

Isn't "Elijah" what those sailors were calling me when I first woke up in the future?

_"You are worthless!"_

What's this all about?

SNAP!

_ I grunted with pain and, again, my mouth moved and I was powerless to control it. "I will escape," I murmured under my breath. "I will escape this place and become a mariner. Just you wait."_

* * *

-Yami's POV-

I snapped to full attention as the machines around my aibou began to beep, screech and wail frantically. _Something's happening_, I thought, gazing down at Yuugi lying so very still in the hospital bed. _What is it?_

I examined his face and saw no change in its serene expression. He seemed no paler than before…all was as it had always been—except…. I allowed my eyes to stray to his chest, his deadly still chest….

_He isn't breathing!_ I realized. _He is dying!_

"Yuugi!" I cried.

_Please don't leave me, aibou._

"Don't give up, aibou! You're strong, you can do this!"

_Live!_

"Breathe, Yuugi…Yuugi, LIVE!" I screamed.

* * *

-Yuugi's POV-

I was lost in darkness, losing my will, my strength. I was dying, drowning in the filth of the cesspool. My body felt heavy and numb. Useless. Weak. I could no longer see, feel, hear anything. I felt as though I was floating through a sea of nothing.

I heard a voice, deep inside my mind. ** Yuugi….**

_Yami?_ I distantly wondered through the haze in my head. _Hello, Yami. What are you doing here? Haha. I'm so tired…._

**Don't give up aibou!**

I barely had the strength to think, _Goodbye, Yami_.

**You're strong you can do this!**

…_How…?_ There was a roar in my ears, and I was falling…falling through space with the rushing in my ears.

**Breathe, Yuugi….**

I deliriously opened my mouth and took in a shallow breath of…air? _What? I can breathe!_ I coughed and greedily sucked the air, wanting to fill my lungs with it until they burst. I was still in the cesspool; that much I was certain of, but as my head cleared and strength began to return to my body, I felt my fear draining away to be replaced with something I had never felt before. _This cesspool is just another of the Ruler's illusions_, I realized.

An unfathomable, ancient power was growing inside my being, burning me from the inside out. Fire was surging through my veins. It felt somehow right, natural and it was bright, so very bright. Golden light was radiating from my body, dissolving away the illusory whirlpool of foul waters.

**Yuugi, LIVE!**

"Aaagh!" I shrieked as the ugly browns and grays of the cesspool were consumed in an incredibly bright light.

The power was so strong it was impossible to control. I saw only a fleeting glimpse of the Ruler's bedroom, only a momentary glance of Jou, Ryou, Kaiba and Jezebel lying dead still on the stone ground, just a flicker of the Ruler himself before the power unleashed itself in a wave of light.

"Yaaah!" I shrieked as I felt the fire burst out of my body and bear down on the Ruler. It was so much power it hurt. From far, far away, I heard the Ruler scream and fall to the ground undeniably dead, but I couldn't stop. The power continued to explode out of me, unstoppable, invincible.

And then, finally, it ended. I slumped to the ground as the last of the light faded, utterly spent in body, soul and mind. Blearily, through a haze of fatigue, I saw first Ryou, then Jou, Kaiba and Jezebel stir and shakily sit up. I managed a tired smile as my eyes drifted closed and I fell into a deep, soothing sleep.

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Well…there you have it! Another extremely long installment of JK20. Now you know why I had to divide this chapter into two parts. I hope this wasn't too freakishly bizarre…. Anyways, the story isn't quite over yet. I've got a lot of explanations that will be in the next chapter, so everything will (hopefully) make sense.

Thanks to mandapandabug, AmunRa, shadowwaker, ShamanQueens, restlesspirit, WildBlackWolf and Viva and Yuki Tsukihana for reviewing! You guys keep me going!


	16. Chapter 14: Can We Go Home Now?

-CHAPTER 14-

-Shizuka's POV-

I flopped on to my bed with an exhausted sigh and buried my face in my hands. I felt as though I'd spent the day on a runaway roller coaster —whipped around on a wild ride of danger and fear with no control over where I was headed or when it would stop. In the last twenty-four hours, I'd been joyful, sorrowful, crying, terrified, screaming, in pain, crying, relieved, crying again, concerned, in shock and completely worn out…in that order. Physically, I had nothing left. Emotionally, I had so much left I couldn't even decide how I was supposed to feel.

We'd gone to the hospital first _(the hospital where Katsuya still lay in a coma). _It had been awful _(smell of rubber gloves, muffins that taste like cardboard). _They'd taken Anzu away almost the second we walked in _("Will she be OK?"). _They wanted to take a look at the cut on my forehead _("I'm fine; it's nothing!")._ I ended up getting twelve stitches _(ow, ow, ow!). _I had to call my mom and explain what was going on _("Um…hi, mom…guess where I am right now at…um…4:00 in the morning….")._ Something about getting insurance information and how we were going to pay for the procedure _(it's all about money nowadays, isn't it?). _They looked at Mai's hand, too _(everybody's getting hurt)._ She was all right _(no infections, foreign objects or flesh-eating bacteria found). _And then my mom came to take me home _("Where have you been? Don't you ever, ever do something like this again!"). _Honda offered to drive me home _("Are you going to be all right, Shizuka?"). _Mom said no _("I don't want any more of these shenanigans, young man, is that perfectly clear?")._

_ Why is all of this happening? Why did that man kidnap me? When is it all going to end? Why did Katsuya…._ I stopped myself short, unable to bring myself to think of my brother's condition. "Katsuya," I whispered and slowly moved my hands away from my face. "I thought…I was so sure that…that you were getting better." I stared up at my ceiling and felt hot tears well at the corners of my eyes. "It's not fair. None of this is fair." I wiped the tears away and sat up. "Why did any of this have to happen?"

I yawned so deeply my eyes scrunched themselves closed and my jaw ached. I glanced at my bedside clock radio. The glowing blue digits unblinkingly announced that it was 5:05 am. Natural light was already beginning to filter through my mini-blinds and a few early-rising birds were chirping outside my window.

_I should sleep, but what's the use of going to sleep now? It's Monday. Mom will just be waking me up in another hour anyway so we'll have time to stop at the hospital before school._ I snorted, disgusted with myself. _This is ridiculous…I'm already thinking about these hospital runs like they're routine._

Pointless as it was, I still decided to strip off my bloody, grimy, sweaty clothes, pull on my favorite pair of pink flannel pajamas and crawl into bed. I fell into a blissful slumber almost the second I closed my eyes.

* * *

-Seto's POV-

The trip back to Dante's residence seemed unbelievably long. Jezebel left us the moment Yuugi regained consciousness and she received her pay, leaving us to fend for ourselves in regards to transportation and, unfortunately, navigation. I wasn't pleased to hear that none of the three nitwits I'd been stuck with throughout this ridiculous caper remembered the name of the village that Dante lived in, much less how to get there (though I can't say I was surprised).

We wasted several days searching for a sailor who knew where the wizard lived and was willing to offer us a ride to the town at no charge. That in itself was one of the most demeaning experiences of my life. Me, Seto Kaiba, reduced to _begging! _To make the situation all the more embarrassing, half of the sailors we talked to seemed to be either terrified of me or harboring a deep grudge against me. They would barely allow Yuugi, Ryou or Jounouchi to begin to speak before glaring at me, muttering something along the lines of, "I don't work for mutants" and stalking away. Eventually, we found a sailor by the name of Zachary (who, strangely enough, looked exactly like Ryuuji Otogi) that agreed to give us the ride.

None of us spoke much during the three-day boat ride; not even Jounouchi…although the mutt kept shooting me the oddest looks. I constantly caught him staring at me when he thought my back was turned, but whenever I confronted him about it, he would deny it or insist that it was "just nothin'". I frequently took short flights away from the boat to have a bit of time to myself and to escape Jounouchi's gawking.

I suspected that Jounouchi's staring had something to do with what he had seen in the cesspool, but I wasn't about to attempt to find out. If the mutt wasn't going to dig the subject up, I was perfectly content to keep it buried. As far as I was concerned, the images and memories I had experienced in the cesspool were rubbish, a useless jumble of hocus-pocus.

Finally, we arrived at Dante's home. I was understandably surprised to discover that Dante was a perfect double of Mokuba, and mildly irritated that Yuugi had failed to mention this detail in giving his recount of all that had happened before I joined his pathetic group. The moment we set foot in the door, Jounouchi began giving Dante a narrative of all we had been through with all the composure of a five year old. I slouched against a wall, careful to avoid knocking anything off a nearby set of shelves with my wings and waited for him to stop yapping when a bit of the conversation caught my attention.

"…so Jezebel was about ta kill da little kid and Yug was all 'no, no, no! Don't hurt an innocent child!' Turns out, da 'innocent child' was really da Ruler. He threw us inta somethin' he called a cesspool."

Dante winced. "That was a low blow on the Ruler's part," he muttered.

I straightened up and diverted my full attention to what was being said, finally interested in the discussion.

"Why? It was just a whirlpool, wasn't it?" queried Ryou.

Dante bit his lip before replying, "Well…yes and no. It _is _a whirlpool of sorts…a whirlpool of memories. _Unpleasant _memories, for the most part. Rather than water, you are drowning in your own memories along with the memories of whoever happens to be in the cesspool with you."

I stiffened as Jounouchi flicked a guilty glance in my direction, and my wings swept a jar of yellow powder off its shelf and to the ground. It landed with a loud crash and shattered, spilling its contents on the floor. Dante, Ryou and Yuugi all jumped and turned their attention to me. I gave them a steely glare and they quickly went back to their conversation.

_Damn it, _I thought, glaring daggers at Jounouchi. _I wonder what he saw._ I had plenty of 'unpleasant' memories that I wasn't planning to share with anybody, least of all that brainless Chihuahua. I returned my attention to the discussion, hoping to learn more about the cesspool, but Jounouchi had already resumed his rambling narrative.

"…so da next thing I know, I see Yug here glowin' gold and hittin' da Ruler with some kind 'a weird energy." He turned to Yuugi and said, "So…uh…where exactly _did_ da power come from, anyway? You neva' did tell us, Yug."

Yuugi's face adopted a bewildered expression. "I…I don't know," he admitted. "It just…came to me."

Dante smiled. "I can explain that for you."

I arched my eyebrows. "If you know so much about all of this, why don't you explain what we're doing wasting our time and effort here in the first place? And while you're at it, I want to see you explain how I ended up with these." I flexed my wings and held up a clawed hand. _Let's see how he explains all of this. Now I'll finally get some real answers._

Dante nodded and took a deep breath before beginning, "First off, I owe you all an apology. Ryou, Yuugi, Jounouchi, when I was telling you how the Ruler assumed power, I did not tell you a small, but vital piece of information. Please understand that I kept it from you for your own protection; not necessarily because I _wanted _to keep it secret." He paused and shifted uncomfortably back and forth on his feet before going on. "I assume you all remember that I told you the Ruler recently acquired the Millennium Tauk." He paused and waited until he got a nod or some other form of affirmation from each of us before lowering his voice to something just above a whisper. "I gave him Tauk."

Yuugi, Ryou and Jounouchi gasped, each wearing an identical expression of shock on their faces. I simply smirked and thought, _Of course. How foolish of them to put their faith in a total stranger._

"But Dante…no…you said that…" sputtered Yuugi.

"What the—why da _hell_ did ya do _that?"_ Jounouchi heatedly demanded.

Dante sighed and held up one hand, signaling them to be quiet. "I gave him Tauk because I knew that it would bring about his destruction." He paused, waiting for any comments that this statement would bring. When he was satisfied that we had all processed this last bit of information, he spoke again. "I was able to use the powers of Tauk to see the future. I saw that I would give Tauk to the Ruler, and that the Ruler would attempt to use its powers for his own benefit. I saw that the Ruler would see a future in which he was destroyed. I saw that the Ruler would try to prevent this future from occurring, and in doing so, would ultimately cause his own destruction."

"Please stop talking in riddles," said Ryou.

Dante frowned, but answered, "Very well. In the future that the Ruler saw, it was the four of you, plus Jezebel, who destroyed him. He decided that in order to prevent this future, he would eliminate the threat before it ever even came into existence. So, using the powers of Tauk, he sent one of his henchmen back in time, to the year 2004. The henchman's job was to find the four of you and Mai Kujaku, kill you all, and, using the powers of the Millennium Eye, trap your souls within a series of cards for all eternity, thus ensuring that you would never be able to destroy the Ruler. However, there were complications.

"The henchman failed to kill any of you. In fact, the explosion that was meant to kill the four of you was what sealed the Ruler's doom. Of course, the blast was strong enough to kill you all. You should have died in it. But destiny had something different planned for you. Instead of killing you, the blast separated your souls from your bodies. Because your bodies were so severely injured at the time, your souls were unable to re-enter them. Therefore, your souls were sent forward in time, to inhabit the bodies of your future selves. This is why Ryou and Yuugi were being called Elijah and Aiden, respectively. This is also why Jounouchi is a robot, and why _you _are a mutant" (he gestured to me).

"So my reincarnation is a robot?" Jounouchi blankly questioned. "How exactly is that supposed ta work?"

"You're here, aren't you?" Dante wryly retorted, answering Jounouchi's question with a question of his own. "Anyways, as I was saying, the four of you were sent to inhabit the bodies of your future selves. When you arrived in this time, I knew that your primary concern would be to find a way to return to 2004. I knew that if given the proper motivation, you would indeed kill the Ruler and fulfill the very future that he had attempted to prevent from happening. So I found you and steered you in the correct direction to find everything that you would need to be successful. And lo and behold, I was right." He chuckled and said, "Isn't it ironic that in attempting to prevent the future he had seen, the Ruler did precisely the thing that would cause it to happen?"

I glowered at Dante. _He talks about us as though we're his little science project, _I thought. _I do not appreciate being manipulated to do somebody else's bidding, and I don't believe a word of this 'fulfilling destiny' mumbo jumbo. The truth of the matter is most certainly that Dante wanted the Ruler dead all along, and that he used us as pawns to get what he wanted._

I was about to voice my thoughts, but Yuugi spoke before I could get a word out. "You still haven't explained where the power I used to defeat the Ruler came from, Dante," he quietly stated.

_They believe him! _I incredulously realized. _Those gullible idiots! _I sighed. _I suppose his motives don't make a difference, as long as he gets us back to 2004 like he claimed he would._

"I'm afraid that I must apologize a second time," Dante replied. "You see, when I told you the story of how the Ruler assumed power, I stated that the Millennium Puzzle and the Millennium Ring were both still lost. That is only half true. Ring is indeed still lost, but Puzzle was destroyed."

Yuugi's eyes went wide. "No," he breathed, horrified.

"Yes," Dante firmly answered. "Anyhow, you're completely missing the point. When a Millennium Item is destroyed, the soul that is destined to bear it will retain its powers. You've been harboring the powers of Puzzle within your soul ever since you arrived in this time. Therefore, you used the power of Puzzle to defeat the Ruler." He smiled. "Quite impressive, if I say so myself."

_These "explanations" are completely ridiculous, _I thought. _Ludicrous. I wanted facts, not a bunch of talk about magic and those damned Millennium Items._ I cleared my throat to get the wizard's attention and waited until he looked in my direction before saying, "If you've finished feeding us these stories, Dante, I believe it's time for you to keep your end of the deal. Send us home. Now."

The smile on Dante's face disappeared. "I'm sorry," he unwaveringly retorted. "I can't do that."

The room was tensely silent as the news slowly sank in. Ryou plopped down onto a chair with a dazed expression on his face. Jounouchi's jaw dropped. Yuugi looked as though he was about to cry. _That figures, _I bitterly thought, giving Dante a look that would have left any Kaiba Corp. employee shivering on the ground.

"But…but…Dante, you _promised!" _Yuugi stammered.

"If you will remember correctly, I promised nothing," replied the wizard. "I said only what needed to be said to send you on your way to fulfill destiny."

"You bastard!"Jounouchi spat. "After everything we went through…you son of a _bitch!"_ He raised his arm and pulled it back, ready to take a swing at Dante.

Dante winced and screwed his eyes closed. "Hit me if you must. Lord knows I deserve it."

Jounouchi sighed and lowered his gaze to the floor. "Forget it," he muttered, allowing his arm to drop back to his side. "Just forget it."

Cautiously, Dante peeked one eye open and relaxed. "As I was saying, I can't send you back. Without the Millennium Tauk, I cannot control time. However, unless I'm sorely mistaken, one of you already knows how to return to your time."

I glanced at Jounouchi and remembered his stubborn claims that he had somehow returned to the year 2004. _"I really _did _go home, honest!" "I swear I went home and it wasn't a dream." Could he have possibly been telling the truth? _I wondered.

Jounouchi squirmed uncomfortably when he realized that everybody's eyes were on him. "I think…maybe…we have to…have to die," he haltingly stated.

I laughed a mirthless laugh. "That's easy for you to say. It's not much of a concern for you, is it, mutt?" Much to my glee, Jounouchi growled like a dog at the use of the word "mutt". I held back a snicker and went on. "After all, if your little theory ends up being wrong, you can easily be revived. To the rest of us, death means _death."_

"Kaiba has a strong point," agreed Ryou.

"What else could it be?" Jounouchi demanded. "Do you guys really wanna be stuck here forever? We've gotta die. You know; kick da bucket, swim with da fishes…all that crap." He turned to Dante, desperate. "Come on, Dante," he pleaded. "Tell 'em I'm right."

"I am not a part of this discussion," Dante stated. He paused for a moment, then awkwardly queried, "How about something to drink while you think things over?" Without waiting for an answer, the wizard disappeared into a back room and returned with a tray bearing four brass cups.

Jounouchi smiled and immediately snatched one of the cups from the tray. "Thanks, man." He took a hearty swig of whatever the cup contained, smacked his lips and said, "Anyways, guys, I think we've gotta die to get back to 2004. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it."

"But Jou, what if you're wrong?" Yuugi questioned, taking one of the offered cups with a polite nod of his head. He took a small sip from the cup and added, "It's really risky. Good juice, by the way, Dante." Dante flashed him a pleased smile and handed Ryou his cup.

Jounouchi irritably rolled his eyes. "Look, if I'm wrong, you guys can all haunt me foreva', OK?"

"I'm not sure that would be much of a consolation prize," Ryou sighed. "And Yuugi, you're right; this _is _good juice."

"I said it before and I'll say it again: we can't afford to be wrong on this," I argued. I absently took the last cup. Dante casually lowered the tray and watched as I brought the cup to my lips. I hesitated with the cup at my lips. _Something about this isn't right, _I thought. Dante continued to watch me, unblinking and I felt a shiver go down my spine. His eyes held a cheerful glimmer that seemed to mask something darker hiding just below the surface….

I squinted, trying to decipher what it was I saw, what Dante was trying to keep hidden. As suddenly as I had noticed it, the dark, hungry shadow was gone, replaced with an expression of genuine goodwill. _What's the matter with me?_ I thought._ I'm seeing things_. Without a second thought, I tipped the cup and drank.

The juice tasted something like a cross between guava and strawberry. Behind the fruity taste, there was something odd, something I couldn't quite identify. I swallowed my mouthful and quietly set the cup down. The drink was far too sweet for my taste.

"I ain't wrong," Jounouchi insisted. "I'm sure of it!"

Yuugi quietly shook his head. "I'm just not sure we should rush into this, Jou. I mean, what if—" he trailed off with a silent gasp and clutched at his stomach.

"What if what, Yug?" Jounouchi glanced at Yuugi and started with surprise. "Shit man, are you OK?"

Yuugi moaned and shivered in response before slowly sinking down to the floor and hugging his knees to his chest. A film of cold sweat began to form on his face and his eyes were glazed with fear.

Ryou knelt beside Yuugi and said, "Yuugi? What's wrong?"

"I…I don't know," Yuugi whispered. "It hurts. Ah!"

"Dante, what in da hell's happening to him?" Jounouchi frantically questioned. Dante gave no reply, other than to watch as Ryou collapsed to the ground with a cry. "Don't just stand dere! Do somethin' to help them!"

"The drinks," I gasped, the truth dawning on me in an instant.

Dante looked my way, a self-satisfied smirk on his face. "Clever," he commented. "You are correct."

"What did you _do?__"_ Jounouchi shrieked, horrified. Yuugi sobbed and began to convulse, arms and legs twitching uncontrollably. Ryou whimpered and spat a mouthful of blood to the ground.

"I thought I would help speed your decision," Dante calmly explained. "I put a fast-acting poison into the drinks. Those two will be dead quite soon. Within minutes, if not seconds."

Jounouchi gaped at the wizard. "But what if I was wrong? Make it stop!"

"There's no way to stop it. The poison goes straight to the bloodstream the moment it is swallowed."

"You—oh…." I groaned as my guts twisted in agony. I doubled over, gasping for breath. My throat seemed to have nearly swollen shut in seconds.

"Kaiba! Shit, not you, too!" Jounouchi shouted.

I tried to answer with a snide remark regarding his intelligence (or lack thereof), but my tongue felt thick in my mouth, and all I could manage was a choked "Nrrgh." My legs trembled and buckled, sending me sprawling on the ground.

"Goddamn you, Dante!" snapped Jounouchi. "Ya goddamned double-crossa'!" I blearily saw him charge across the room, and saw the wizard withdraw something metallic from within his robes. Before I could even begin to process what was happening, I heard a crackle of electricity and Jounouchi slumped to the ground, utterly still, eyes staring blankly ahead into space.

I tasted bile in the back of my throat and grunted miserably as the warm vomit spewed from my mouth and over my face. Yuugi's convulsions stopped and he was motionless. Ryou's breathing came in shallow, short gasps. I saw him move his lips, trying to form words, but he was too weakened by now to speak. He slumped to the ground and did not move again.

Distantly, I heard Dante's voice. "I'm truly sorry about all this. I know this isn't a pleasant way to go, but you have to understand that this is for the best."

"Uhn," I gasped in response._ Is he really apologizing to me? _I groggily wondered. A strange, numbing heaviness was settling into my arms, wings and legs. My eyes ached and I slowly closed them. The heaviness spread to my body and into my head. I felt my heart, my blood, my mind all slowing and shutting down. And all was dark.

* * *

-Bakura's POV-

I growled, exasperated as the machines around Ryou began to whine, whir and beep wildly. _What in the name of Ra is the matter with that boy? _I wondered, glaring down at his still form. _This is the second time those machines have done this. The last time this happened, an army of mortals invaded this room like a plague. _

I studied his face, looking for any sign of change, something that might tell me what the machines were so excited about. _I don't see what the big fuss is all about…he looks no different to me. If those mortals knew what was best for them, they would be worrying about the fluctuations I've been feeling between the shadow realm and this one these past few hours._

The trouble had started around 3:00 am, mortal time. Fluctuations unlike anything I had ever felt had torn through Domino, threatening to rip the city to shreds. The Source was making up for the few days of relative calm it had allowed to pass, that much I was certain of. Much to my disgust, none of the thickheaded mortals felt a thing. _Pathetic, _I thought. _They come running at the beeping of a machine but don't even react when their entire world is threatened._

I glared down at Ryou in his hospital bed. "Why don't you wake up already?" I muttered, giving his shoulder an annoyed swipe. "You've caused more than enough trouble for me as it is. The last thing I need now is a troupe of foolish mortals storming in here."

Something shuddered throughout my entire being and my head exploded with pain as a horrendously strong ripple between the two realms passed through me. _This is it, _I thought, clutching at my temples. _One more at that strength will be more than enough to rend this world to pieces._

I was surprised to feel something warm and deeply familiar flood my being. _Well, isn't this ironic? _I thought, immediately recognizing the feeling. _I regain the power of the Ring just before this world passes into oblivion. Grand. Just grand._

I was so occupied with preparing myself for the end of the world that I was completely shocked to hear somebody inquire in a mildly amused tone, "What exactly are you doing, Bakura?"

I opened my eyes and glared down at the now very much awake boy in the hospital bed. "Preparing for the end of the world, you twit!" I snapped. I had absolutely no idea how long he had been awake and frankly, I didn't care.

Ryou winced. "What are you talking about?"

"The imbalance is—" I paused and raised an eyebrow. _Gone! _I thought. _It's repaired itself! Dear Ra, if the Pharaoh were here, he'd be rubbing this in my face. I can't believe he was right! _"Never you mind."

"But—"

"I said forget it!" I growled. I heard footsteps fast approaching the room and prepared myself to return to my soul room. "By the way…." I sneered down at him as the footsteps drew nearer. I gave him a light punch on the shoulder, and he winced, weakling that he was. "Welcome back."

I disappeared into my soul room in a flash of light as the door of the room flew open. _Thank Ra this ordeal is over, _I thought, settling into the familiar surroundings of my soul room. _I don't believe I could have stood another day of working with the Pharaoh._

* * *

**Author's Notes: **There you have it: the last chapter of Jackknife 20! It turned out a lot longer (and a lot more complicated) than I'd planned it to be, that's for sure. But wait! Don't go away just yet—there is going to be an epilogue! So no, the story's not quite over yet. The epilogue will be here sometime in the near future.

Thanks to shadowwaker, Cherrii, ShamanQueens, WheelerWolf, Yuki Tsukihana, mandapandabug, WildBlackWolf and Viva, Leland Lancaster, AmunRa and dragonladay 1220 for all of your kind reviews. I'm glad to see that you are enjoying the story. I really appreciate all of your support!


	17. Epilogue: Tying It All Together

-EPILOGUE-

-Jounouchi's POV-

You never realize how much you love the simple pleasures in life until they're gone. Eating three meals a day. Sleeping in a bed. Being able to take a shower. Or brush your teeth. God, it felt good to come back to the year 2004 and have all of those again after that whole wild goose chase.

I got to go home three days after I woke up in the hospital for the second time. They kept me on a ventilator for way longer than they needed to, because they were afraid that I would have another "relapse" if they took me off of it too soon. I could have told them there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell of another "relapse", but the tube down my throat made talking damn near impossible. Besides that, they would have probably carted me off to the mental ward if I'd tried to explain that my soul was going to stay right where it was because my robotic future self wasn't going to be repaired again.

Ryou got to go home the day after we all woke up, the lucky bum. They ran a couple of tests, did some CAT scans and sent him right home. He says they didn't find anything wrong with him. I say he bribed them. Or maybe Bakura scared the pee out of them. Either way, he got to go home first.

Yug was in the hospital a lot longer than me. He ended up going through a couple of surgeries (which must have sucked), and was on a liquid diet for a long time (which must have _really _sucked). I never heard him complain, though. His grandpa threw him a big welcome home party the day he finally got out of the hospital. I'd never seen gramps look so happy.

Kaiba was in the hospital longest of all, which I'm sure he was pissed about. From what I heard, he needed lots of skin grafts. And physical therapy, which must have been a really unpleasant experience for the therapist.

They never did find the guy who bombed Hill House. Oh, the investigations went on for a while. We were all questioned at some point or another. I wasn't happy to hear that the guy had been stalking Mai. And I was completely pissed to hear that he kidnapped Shizuka. But they never even found his remains. Of course they wouldn't. He wasn't even supposed to exist for another thousand years or so.

It's funny how life has its own way of moving on. You'd think it would be hard to go back to everyday life again after everything that happened to us, but really, it didn't take long for life to go back to normal. Going to school. Getting detention. Hanging out at the game shop…all that might sound boring to you, but it was exciting enough for me.

Of course, some things are different now, too. Anzu has a limp. I still can't believe that she was shot in the leg by the same bastard who kidnapped my sister. The doctors tried to tell her she wouldn't be able to dance anymore, but she wouldn't listen to a word of that bullshit. She's already ripping it up at all the school dances again.

Yami wants to go after Bakura now that we all know he stole the Millennium Eye from Pegasus, but Bakura's been laying low ever since everything ended. That's perfectly fine with me. The less we have to deal with that psycho, the better in my opinion.

I also feel differently towards Kaiba now. Don't get me wrong. He still annoys the hell out of me. I'd still love to kick his ass in a duel. Or just plain kick his ass. But I respect him more now as a person. Call me crazy, call me weird, call me stupid, call me all of the above. But after what I saw in the cesspool, I can't help it. I'm not about to walk up to him and say something like, "Hey, Kaiba, ya know what? I've got a dad who smacks me around like yours did to you! Ain't that crazy?" I'm not even going to mention it to him if I can help it. I have a feeling he'd rather not know that I know.

Mokuba scares the bejeepers me now. I know it's stupid, but really. It's hard to look at the little squirt the same way knowing that someday his reincarnation is going to be a nutcase wizard by the name of Dante who kills Yug, Ryou, Kaiba and me.

Oh, and Honda and I finally fixed up my car after I got out of the hospital. It was a weeklong project, but it was it ever worth it. Do you know that I actually get air conditioning in the thing now? And I can play CD's. And we painted it bright red. It's now like one of the "afters" on one of those fix-up-the-car shows, rather than one of the "befores".

So this one day after school I'm cruising around town in my shiny, new (well, OK, not _new_) luxury ride. It's hot as hell outside, and I've got my radio cranked all the way up, so the subwoofer in the back makes the windows shake every time the bass guitar comes in. I'm just puttering around Domino alone, no real destination in mind when I get to the park.

I didn't really have any reason to stop there. I wasn't planning on meeting anybody. Yug was stuck working at the game shop, Anzu was busy at the burger joint, Honda was taking to Shizuka to a movie (but only after a long pep talk from me about how I would turn his face into hamburger if he tried anything), and Ryou had stayed home from school sick. But still, I go ahead and pull over to the curb and get out of the car.

I wander around the park aimlessly for a while, not really looking for anything in particular. I go past a playground with a bunch of little kids swinging on the swings or lined up to go down the slide. I walk past the public bathrooms and see a stoner sitting on the ground sucking on a joint. I see a couple of old people feeding the pigeons and playing checkers. Then I see somebody I know sitting alone on a bench.

I trot on over to the bench and plop down beside her. She's reading a book. Some romance novel by the look of the cover. She doesn't know I'm there.

"Hey," I say.

She jumps, surprised. "Jounouchi!" she shouts and smacks me on the head with her book. "Don't sneak up on people like that!"

"Sorry. Didn't mean to scare ya." I give her a goofy grin. I know she hates it when people say things like that.

She rolls her eyes. "Don't flatter yourself. You didn't scare me."

There's a long awkward pause for a while after this. Finally, I clear my throat and say, "So…whatcha readin'?"

"None of your business," she coldly replies.

"Oh. OK. No need to get nasty about it. Sheesh. You mad at me or somethin'?"

No answer. _Huh? _I think. _I don't remember doing anything to piss her off. Last I checked we were still friends._

"Who is she?" Spoken quiet, barely above a whisper.

"Huh?" _Am I hearing things?_

"Don't play dumb, Jounouchi. Who is she?"

I blink, confused. "Who?"

She sighs and snaps, "Jezebel!"

_Wait a sec…does she think that I…no way! _"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me."

I raise my eyebrows and study her face, trying to decide if she's serious. Then I heave a hefty sigh and begin. "Well, Mai, it all started at Hill House…."

THE END

* * *

**Author's Notes: **There. Jackknife 20 is now officially done! I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. My next project will be a story by the name of Star Struck. ß(Shameless plug!) Anyways, thank you to all of my readers and my reviewers!

Special thanks to ShamanQueens, Orenji Kaniku, Flame Swordsman, Liviania, mandapandabug, WildBlackWolf and Viva, shadowwaker, Yuki Tsukihana, number157493 and trefenwyd12 for reviewing the last chapter!

Now for the questions:

mandapandabug: I'm not exactly sure what Jou saw when he was living his fear…I thought it would be more effective to leave it open-ended. I did describe what he saw in the cesspool, though. Also, I think that the epilogue answered all of your other questions (or at least I hope it did!).

number157493: Ah yes. I didn't really go into detail about what happened to Elijah, Aiden, Gabe and Seto's reincarnation (no, I didn't give him a name). I guess you would have to say that the reincarnation's lives ended when Yuugi and the others came into the picture. The fact that their memories were in the cesspool was meant to reinforce the fact that Ryou, Yuugi, Jounouchi and Seto really were in the bodies of their future selves. They had their reincarnation's bodies, so they also had their reincarnation's minds and memories to deal with.


End file.
